Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago, museum and art school, in Grant Park, facing Michigan Ave. It was incorporated in 1879; George Armour was the first president. Since 1893 the Institute has been housed in its present building, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge. Among its famous collections are those of early Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and Flemish paintings, including works by El Greco, Rembrandt, and Hals. The Institute is rich in 19th-century American and French paintings; particularly well known is La Grande Jatte by Seurat. Modern American and European paintings are also well represented. Other collections include prints and drawings, dating from the 15th cent., and sculpture. The section on decorative arts has porcelains, textiles, glass, and rooms of period furniture. The Institute also has a fine collection of Chinese art. Other features include the Ryerson Library for research and the Goodman Memorial Theater with its school of drama.

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Art Institute of Chicago

Museum in Chicago that houses European, American, Asian, African, and pre-Columbian art. It was established in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design and took its current name in 1882. In 1893 it moved to its present building, designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge for the World's Columbian Exposition, on Michigan Avenue. The Art Institute, which comprises both a museum and a school, is noted for its extensive collections of 19th-century French painting (Impressionist works and the work of Claude Monet in particular) and 20th-century European and American painting. Among its best-known works are Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on La Grand Jatte—1884 (1884–86), Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930), and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks (1942).