A Look Back: Master Drawings Unveiled: 25 Years of Major Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

The Art Institute of Chicago is known around the world as a top-tier museum, with a vast, deep collection of works, from major Impressionist paintings to decorative arts, to Modern and Contemporary works. But the blockbusters aside, it is also renowned for its collections of master drawings, both publicly and privately held. The Art Institute of Chicago has been collecting these works for over a century and has substantial world-class holdings—particularly with regard to drawings of the French and Italian schools.

The stunning exhibition now on view is the final exhibition curated by long-time Prints Department head Suzanne McCullagh, who recently retired. Together with her team of experts, she highlights a selection of master drawings from the 17th to mid-20th century that have been purchased by the museum over the past 25 years but have not yet had occasion to be shown.

Though many works are in some ways familiar to us, whether they are by internationally reknown artists or they resemble other works that have been shown at the museum, seeing them together for the first time is enlightening. Surprises include a modest but stunning early beach landscape by Edgar Degas, a preparatory drawing for an Art Institute star painting Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte, as well as a sketch book that visitors may digitally page through. Finally, the survey culminates with images from the first half of the 20th century, among them the momentous pastel January by Grant Wood, creator of another Art Institute icon, American Gothic.

The works are a delight to behold and contemplate and are representative of all the surprises the Art Institute continues to share with the public. 

On view through January 29, 2017