Art Institute of Chicago: The Painting in Front of You, Not the One You’re Told to Find

The Art Institute of Chicago’s most famous painting, Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86), is nearly 10 feet tall and 14 feet wide. Standing in front of it at the correct distance, far enough that the individual dots of paint resolve into coherent figures, and understanding that Seurat laid down each dot with deliberate colour theory in mind, takes more time than most visitors give it. The same is true of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, which is darker and more interior than reproductions suggest.

The Art Institute was founded in 1879 and the collection now runs to more than 300,000 objects. It is the second-largest art museum in the United States. The building at the south end of Millennium Park on Michigan Avenue is a well-functioning museum building; the Modern Wing, added in 2009 and designed by Renzo Piano, brought the collection’s 20th-century holdings into appropriately lit contemporary galleries.

What to Prioritise

The Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection is the most significant in North America and one of the strongest in the world. Monet’s haystacks, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, the Seurat, all are here in depth rather than as token examples. The collection occupies the upper floor of the original building and merits two hours of your time.

The American Art galleries hold Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930), which is also smaller than reproduction suggests, and Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942). Both are in the permanent collection and consistently drawing small crowds.

The Architecture and Design collection covers the Chicago School of Architecture in ways that make sense for the city’s own architectural heritage.

The Thorne Miniature Rooms: 68 miniature domestic interiors spanning 1600 to 1940, made at 1:12 scale with extraordinary detail. They’re easy to dismiss as whimsical and impossible not to spend an hour with.

Practical Notes

General admission runs $25 for adults ($32 for timed-entry special exhibitions). Illinois residents receive free admission on Thursdays. The museum is free to Chicago residents and all children under 14. Book tickets online at artic.edu.

Allow 3-4 hours for a thorough visit through the main collections. The museum is closed Tuesdays.

The bronze lion sculptures flanking the Michigan Avenue entrance have been at their posts since 1894 and are called The Spearman and The Defiant. Chicago sports victories are traditionally celebrated by dressing them in team jerseys.

Around the Museum

Millennium Park is directly to the north: Cloud Gate (the Bean), the Crown Fountain, and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the Frank Gehry-designed outdoor concert stage, are all within a 10-minute walk. Free concerts at the Pavilion in summer. The Chicago Riverwalk is 10 minutes south, worth walking in either direction.