The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 and located in Chicago's Grant Park, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 million guests annually.[2] Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, is encyclopedic, and includes iconic works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present cutting-edge curatorial and scientific research. Text from Wikipedia

1. Art Institute of Chicago
Impressionists in Chicago
First created 24 Mar 2019. Version 1.1 - 20 Apr 2019. Daperro. London.
Woman bathing Her Feet in a Brook. 1894-5. Pissarro.

2. Manet
Manet (1832-83) is regarded as a pivotal
figure in the transition from Realism to
Impressionism.
His painting finishing is rough, with
photographic lighting, as Emile Zola
described it as “simple and direct
translations of reality” and “surprisingly
elegant awkwardness”.

3. Manet

4. Manet
Manet saw a bullfight when he visited Spain. He made sketches to capture the excitement of the fight.

5. Manet
A contemporary subject with a rough finishing. He was able to portray the thundering lightning speed of the gallop

6. Manet
Manet painted a series of the ‘down & out’ street vagrant on very large canvas, in c1867.
Another painting of the
same series in Los
Angeles.

7. Degas
Double portrait was painted when Degas visited Naples. It is a portrait of his uncle Henri and his cousin Lucie.

8. Degas
The finished version of this painting is in the National Gallery of London. It is study of adolescent sexuality.

9. Degas
In this painting, the performer only played a subordinate role. It is the audience Degas was focused on, with a causal
conversation at the back and a more attentive audience nearer to the stage.

10. Degas
A luminous ballet performance accompanied by musician off the stage. The lush vegetation on the ground was
connected with the ballet L’Africaine. Degas saw the ballet at least nine times.

11. Degas
The ballet dancer was Rosita Mauri.
She had very long black hair, a fine
facial feature, in a elaborate dress. All
these suggests the her rising stardom.
An usual composition for Degas to
focus much of his attention to a single
ballerina.

12. Degas
The painting shows a woman, possibly the shop’s hat designer examinants a hat, possibly to pin more decorations on.
Other are more richly and prominently decorated hats are on displayed.

13. Cezanne
At this stage, Cezanne was exploring ideas of impressionism.

14. Cezanne
Cezanne painted this picturesque fishing village, near Marseilles. His mum had rented a holiday home here for years.

15. Cezanne
Note the inclined basket with the apples rolling off to the right, while a vertical bottle of wine tilted slightly to the left.

16. Caillebotte
Caillebotte studied composition at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He painted this at the age of 29. He also organised
exhibition for other impressionists. He collection formed the core holding of Musee d’Orsay. In this painting he took
on an impressionist subject and painted in a style, which is contrasted with the impressionist approach.
Slightly off centred,
umbrella composition
(Artifexopere.com)

17. Monet
Monet (1840-1926) was a leading
member of the Impressionist and he
was the longest practiced painter of the
Impressionist style.
Cezanne is said to have described him
as ‘only an eye, but my God what an
eye’.

18. Monet
Monet painted Saint-Lazare on 12 canvas. Note the belching steam, the black passenger and the lampposts.

19. Monet
Monet painted this when he was in financial difficulties couple with the death of his wife, with a tablecloth landscape.

20. Monet
Note how Monet painted the foreground poppy field. Compare this with the tall trees and the hill beyond.

21. Monet
Monet moved to London in December 1870 and returned to France in 1872.

22. Monet

23. Monet
One of his late paintings at the age of 68. He painted a total of 37 paintings on Venice. Too quiet on the Grand Canal.

24. Pissarro
Pissarro painted this when he fled from the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. At the time, the Crystal
Palace the first glass glazed building in the world, to house the ‘Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All
Nations’. This is a familiar composition of Pissarro, with a foreground road dramatically recedes into the distance.

25. Pissarro
He painted this quintessentially an Impressionist subject – the bustling scene of a modern city, contrasting yellow sunlight with blue shadows.

26. Pissarro
In 1880s, Pissarro decided to paint
figures rather than landscapes. Many
canvas in this series depicted young
peasant girls taking a break from
chores.
In this the young woman was speaking
to a child, identified as Pissarro’s fourth
son.
The setting of the painting comprised of
a well and a row of farming in the
distance.

27. Renoir
A beautiful young woman playing a
upright piano, with luminous white
dress over a bluish underdress, suggests
she was playing at home. The dress
lacks details but defined by a deep blue
winding band. This contrasted with the
clearly painted hands and face.
This was a well furnished home, with a
woman playing the piano effortlessly, in
her ‘natural’ domain, to exercise her
musical ability.

28. Renoir
Renoir was a good portraitist. Apart
from painting Sisley, he also painted
Monet. This is a thoughtful Sisley in a
casual pose, handsome and well-
groomed on a bamboo chair, on bare
dark background. Unlike Renoir’s
painting of Monet, there was no clue
what is Sisley’s profession.

29. Renoir
Renoir painted this unusual double
portrait two performing girls in a circus.
Most of the impressionists had
experience of attending the circus.
In the painting the sisters had just taken
their bow to the audience, who tossed
their tissue wrapped oranges into the
ring. Angelina’s arms were folded with
oranges.

30. Renoir
In the 1880s Renoir began to change his
style and this painting marked his shift in
style. This painting preceded his more
famous work ‘Luncheon of the Boating
Party’. His colours became more vibrant.
Renoir ensure the sisters hold our
attention by painting a chromatically
softer foliage and river behind. In
contrast the sister were dressed in strong
bright saturated colours, with hats to
match.
This also marked the point when Renoir
departed from classical Impressionism
which pre-occupied with rendering the
transient effect of lights by brush stokes.

31. Renoir
This was Renoir’s second son Jean.
He had long hair that was the
fashion of the day for boys. Children
had always featured in his paintings.
At this period Renoir was very much
appreciated the old master like
Mantegna, Poussin, Rembrandt,
Rubens, Titian and Velazquez.

32. Gauguin
In this painting, his principal figurers are larger and are disengaged from one another. Their posture is more difficult to
interpret.

33. Gauguin
The portrait of a woman sitting in
front of a still life painting by
Cezanne. Gauguin had bought a few
of Cezanne’s still life paintings.

34. Gauguin
Gauguin was delusion when first arrived in
Tahiti, as the native is more French than
savages. He wanted to get into the Tahitian
culture. He met a young woman who could
fulfil his expectation of rejuvenation through
contact with the primitive “others”. The young
woman was Tehamana.
The portrait showed her dress in a high
collared dress, imposed on the native women
by missionaries for propriety. Her sexual
availability is suggested by the flowers in her
hair the red blossom over her ear and the
fragrant white franipani. The antique fan is a
symbol of her superior social rank,

35. Gauguin
With a plain background, this composition
echoed the traditional Madonna with Child.
The older child could be St John the Baptist,
but she was clearly a girl, looking warily at
the viewer, while holding a yellow cat.
There was a suggestion the baby was
Gauguin’s son and the woman was the
grand mother.

36. Seurat
The prominent feature of the painting is it formality of rigid profile of people enjoying a sunny day along the River Seine.

37. Signag
Signag with Seurat developed the Pointilist style in which the whole painting is composed a dots of primarily colours.

38. Sisley
The painting shows workers dredging sand from the river to facilitate barge traffic. A most unusual subject for a painting.

39. Toulouse-Lautrec

40. Toulouse-Lautrec
This painting established Toulouse Lautrec’s art of the Montmartre dance halls, cafes, cabarets and brothels.

41. Toulouse-Lautrec
An iconic work of Paris
night life in the final
years of the 19C, with
Toulouse-Lautrec sitting
at the table.
Most unusually is the
partial turquoise face of
the dancer on the right
side of the painting. It
was thought that she
was too disturbing to be
included in the painting.
Yet it was her image
that define the painting.

42. Van Gogh
An early painting of Van Gogh showing his preference of using a simplified and more vibrate palette.

43. Van Gogh
In his short professional life, Van Gogh
did many of his self-portraits. This one
is among some of his earlier self-
portraits. The brushstroke of his cloth
and background is clearly visible
compared to later his portrait. [see
below].

44. Van Gogh
Van Gogh moved to the south of French, because he found the lights were different. He lined in the house with Gauguin.

45. Van Gogh
Madame Roulin was the wife of Van
Gogh’s friend the postmaster in Arles.
He did several version of Madame
Roulin.
Before this painting was finished. Van
Gogh mutilated himself and had to
go to the hospital. He also fought
with Gauguin too.
When Van Gogh resumed work on
the painting again, he took comfort
in the tune that “the woman rocking
the cradle sang to rock the sailors to
sleep.”

46. Cassatt
Marry Cassatt was born in Allegheny
City Pennsylvania. In 1868, after
travelling widely in Europe she settle in
Paris. In 1877, she met Degas, who
invited her to exhibit with the
Impressionists, which she did.
She is particularly admired for her
paintings of the intimate moments,
between mother and her young child.
She was partly blind by 1912 and totally
so at her death.

47. Edward Hopper
A café bar in the middle of night without any pedestrians or even cars. The four people were isolated in the café. There was
not inter-actions between the people, not even the couple who stood together, with the man looking into the distance and
the woman looking at something before eating it. There is an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and isolation. The painting
is a critique of the modern society.

48. Grant Wood
Stern Face
Gothic Window
Symbolism.
The trident
or the fork?

49. America in the 1930 was experiencing profound changes.
America becoming more urban than rural, with more and
more people working in industry than in farming.
At first glance the painting evokes feelings of unease and
ambiguity. The painting showed a couple of father and
daughter (not man and wife). It reflects images of Middle
America, in particularly the Mid-West.
My first impression of the painting is that it is showing a
rather confrontational old man in his denim dungaree,
obviously a working man, with stern expression, even
somewhat hostile, holding not a hoe nor a spade nor a rake
but a farming fork. The three pronged fork that remind me
of trident of the Greek god Poseidon. He holds the fork
pointing up instead of pointing down to the ground. He is
saying to me that I am going to defend my home, my way of
life and my values as a working man. He is looking directly at
me, while his daughter is looking away, perhaps not
acknowledge my presence.
Others have interpreted archaic images of the painting, as
mocking insults of the Midwesterner life or mildly as a satire
of American provincialism. At least that was the first
reactions of the people of Cedar Rapid when it was shown.
Others saw the painting as an endorsement of the
traditional values of Middle America confronting the
economic turmoil after the stock market of 1929 and the
rising threats of wars in other parts of the world. The
painting is saying to them hold on to our ethics. It would
take us through the trouble waters.
Grant Wood

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Available free for non-commercial and personal use.
The
End
Music – Estrellita

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52. With over a thousand of paintings in more than 10 countries.