The Art Institute of Chicago PDF
Preview The Art Institute of Chicago
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO THE ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO OF by MAXON JOHN 298 illustrations, jj in color THAMES AND HUDSON Firstpublished 1970 Revisededition 1977 Reprinted 1983 C 1970THAMESANDHUDSONLTD,LONDON ALLRIGHTSRESERVED.NOPARTOFTHISPUBLICATIONMAYBE REPRODUCEDORTRANSMITTED INANYFORMORBYANYMEANS, ELECTRONICORMECHANICAL,INCLUDINGPHOTOCOPY,RECORDING,OR ANYINFORMATIONSTORAGEANDRETRIEVALSYSTEM,WITHOUTPERMISSION INWRITINGFROMTHEPUBLISHER PICTURE REPRODUCTIONRIGHTS RESERVEDBY THEARTINSTITUTEOFCHICAGO LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGCARDNUMBER:72-125779 Printedand boundinGreatBritain Contents The Art Institute of Chicago 7 Painting and Sculpture 20 Prints and Drawings 126 Photography 172 Oriental Art 174 Classical and Decorative Arts 216 Textiles 234 Primitive Art 240 Appendix 249 Index of Illustrations 279 The Art Institute of Chicago In 1866 there was established in Chicago, Illinois, an institution called the Chicago Academy ofDesign; this bodywasformed bya group ofartists and managed -more accurately, mismanaged by them. About 1878 a group of businessmenwaselectedtotheboardofthis bodyinthehopeofunsnarlingits tangledaffairs.Afterayear'sendeavor,thenewtrusteesdecidedthattheycould notachievetheirgoal, and all resigned. They then formeda new organization called the Chicago Academy ofFine Arts, which was incorporated 24 May 1879. (Theformerinstitutioncontinuedtostruggletill 1882orthereabouts.) In December 1882the newacademychanged itsnametotheoneitstillbears,the Art InstituteofChicago. Thecertificateofincorporation statesas its purposes, 'thefoundingandmaintenanceofSchoolsofartanddesign,theformationand exhibition ofcollections ofobjects ofart, and the cultivation and extension of the arts ofdesign by any appropriate means.' ThefirstPresidentoftheInstitute,GeorgeArmour,servedoneyear,andhis successor, Levi Z. Leiter, served two years. The man who followed Leiter, Charles L. Hutchinson, was to serve as President ofthe Art Institute for forty/three years. DuringitsfirstthreeyearsofexistencetheInstituterentedroomsatStateand Monroe Streets, in which art classes were held from the start, and occasional exhibitionsweremounted. In 1882,whenthenamewaschanged,theproperty atthe southern corner ofMichigan Avenue at Van Buren Streetwas bought, and a building was put up to front on the latter street. Here there were class/ rooms and exhibition galleries. On 19 November 1887, a new building designed byJohn WellbornRootwas opened. Each yearforfiveyears, further changes were made to the fabric, but it was finally decided that the building was hopelessly outgrown, and the propertywas sold to the Chicago Club for an amount almost ten times what had been paid a decade earlier. The trustees decided to profit from the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 by co-operatingwith the managers ofthe exposition in the building ofa hall for the World's Congresses, which, at the end ofthe exposition, would revertto thetrustees oftheArt Institutefortheir permanent use. Thebuilding, by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, remains the core of the Art Institute's complexofbuildings. IthassincebeennamedtohonorRobertAllerton, long a trustee, officer, and benefactor ofthe museum. An examinationofthepaperofincorporationshowsthatthepurposeofthe school, aswellas ofthe museum, reflectedthethinkingwhich had received its mainimpetus inthe Great Exhibition in London in 1851; thatis, therewasa strongly didactic motivationwhich, in itsturn, representedagenuinelyethical purpose. Thus, inkeepingwith suchfeelings,therewasacquired,veryearlyin thehistoryoftheInstitute, a largeandfinecollectionofplastercastswhich sur/ vived intact till the late 1950s, when, in accord with the change oftaste in teachingandadifferentviewaboutthevalueofreproductiveworks,thecollec tionwasdispersed.By1900therewasalsoacollection-albeitarathersmallone -ofEgyptianandClassicalmaterial. Theformerwaslaterabandonedasafield for pursuit, mainly because of the emergence of the work of the Oriental Institute ofthe University ofChicago. The latter group remains a small one, butachoiceonewithanumberofsuperbGreekpots.In 1894MrHutchinson, aided byMartinRyersonwho stillremains thegreatestsingle benefactorofthe Art Institute,wasabletosecurethirteen majorworks, mostlyDutch, fromthe sale ofthe Demidoff Collection in Florence. Mrs Henry Field gave in her husband's memory, also in 1894, his distinguished collection of Barbizon paintings, among which works by Millet are outstanding. By 1900, the members ofthe Antiquarian Society, an ancillary group dedicated to helping the Art Institute, had bought a number ofimportant items ofdecorative arts. In 1906, the trustees voted, after some hesitation and by no means unanv mously, to buy what still remains the greatest object in the collection: El Greco's Assumption. Thiswas the master's firstgreat Spanish commission and hadformedthecentralpartofthehighaltarpieceofthechurchofSanDomingo el Antiguo in Toledo. Mr Hutchinson and Mr Ryerson had seen the picture at Durand'Ruel's in Pans and ordered it sent on approval to Chicago. The then Director, William M.R. French (brother ofthe American academic sculptor, Daniel ChesterFrench), observedthathecould notrecallseeingany El GrecoinaEuropeangallery. Hefurthernotedthat,whilehefeltthepicture tobeoneofElGreco'sbestandthatitmadeavaluableadditiontothecollections intheInstitute, hecouldnotsaythathefeltreadytopay$40,000forit. Interms ofthebuyingpowerofthedollarin 1906thiswasindeedanenormousamount ofmoney to pay for the work ofan almost completely unknown or, at least, forgotten master. It is interesting to note that the painting had been seen at
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