Gilded Chicago: Portraits of an Era

The companion exhibition to Beauty’s Legacy: Gilded Age Portraiture in America, this intimate gallery comprised of ten paintings will focus on prominent Chicago citizens and the portraits they commissioned during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when both the newly wealthy and established elite sought out artists who could highlight their social standing and personal affluence. The portraits of Gilded Age Chicagoans—with familiar last names such as McCormick, Field, Pullman, and Nickerson—will be hung in the gallery on the first floor of the mansion, where the Nickerson family originally displayed their art and design collection (which was donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1900).

Image: William Merritt Chase, (American, 1849 - 1916), Myra Reynolds, late 19th century, Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 × 33 1/2 in. The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago; University Transfer [Friends and former residents of Foster Hall]. Photograph © 2018 courtesy of The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago.

This exhibition has been organized by The Richard H. Driehaus Museum.