Skip to the works

ON VIEW

Concrete as a Draft

what a painting looks like before it decides

Six rooms of the collection re-hung around a single question: at what point does a picture stop being a proposal. Sketches hang beside the finished canvases they were arguing with, and the wall labels give both dates.

Nothing here was made to be seen together. The pairings are ours.

dates 12 September 2026 – 30 November 2026works 8halls 3status on view

← all exhibitions

Large, dark painting of Jesus sitting with three standing soldiers.

Opening the exhibition Édouard Manet Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers 1865 · Oil on canvas
Gift of James Deering
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

Still life painting of strawberries, nuts, lemon, and porcelain vessels. — Raphaelle Peale Still Life—Strawberries, Nuts, &c. 1822 · Oil on wood panel
Philadelphia · 41.1 × 57.8 cm
Gift of Jamee J. and Marshall Field
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

A plucked chicken, a few stray feathers remaining, hangs upside-down by one foot, illuminated. Behind it the metal hinges and wood panels of a door are visible. — William Michael Harnett For Sunday's Dinner 1888 · Oil on canvas
United States · 94.3 × 53.6 cm
Wilson L. Mead Fund
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

Impressionist painting of two girls on balcony, bright flower hat, knitting basket. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir Two Sisters (On the Terrace) 1881 · Oil on canvas
France · 100.4 × 80.9 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

Painting of mother in blue, purple, and green-stripped dress washing child's feet. — Mary Cassatt The Child's Bath 1893 · Oil on canvas
France · 101.3 × 67.3 cm
Robert A. Waller Fund
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

Loosely painted image of an open-air train station. On the right, a parked train gives off an enormous plumb of white smoke, making the scene look as though it were full of clouds. A huddled mass of barely discernible people crowd around the train on both sides of the tracks. Blue, green, and gray tones dominate. — Claude Monet Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare 1877 · Oil on canvas
France · 60.3 × 80.2 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

Painting of four women with blue shawls walking near red fence. — Paul Gauguin Arlésiennes (Mistral) 1888 · Oil on jute canvas
France · 73 × 92 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

A heronǳ silhouette sits amongst the brush in a golden hued forest. — George Inness The Home of the Heron 1893 · Oil on canvas
Florida · 76.2 × 115.2 cm
Edward B. Butler Collection
Art Institute of Chicago · public domain

Every work shown here is in the public domain and comes from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, published under its Open Access programme (CC0). Artist, title, date, medium and the museum’s own credit line are printed under each plate, and every plate links to the object record in Chicago. EPRIS Museum claims no rights in these images.

Works in this exhibition are drawn from Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism.