Art Institute of Chicago

  While we have returned to the United States, our adventure has not ended. Chicago is the current stop on this journey, and today we visited the art Institute of Chicago. In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design (a free art school and gallery)in the historic Michigan Boulevard District. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed the original building, throwing the Academy into debt (up to $10,000 by 1878). The Chicago Academy of Design finally went bankrupt in 1879, with the newly formed Chicago Academy of Fine Arts buying all of its assets. A name change to the Art Institute of Chicago occurred in 1882, along with a continuing program of growth and acquisition. Today, with one million square feet of exhibition space within eight buildings, the Art Institue of Chicago is the second-largest art museum in America (after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) with three million works of art, including the renowned "American Gothic". Nearly two million visitors per year enjoy the museum's exhibitions.

The Art Institute of Chicago, the second-largest art museum in America.

Lorraine in front of Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" (1884).

Renoir's "Woman at the Piano" (1875).

The armchair in the foreground was designed in London by Owen Jones in 1867, while the Drawing Room Cabinet in the background was designed by Bruce James Talbert in 1871.

This South German "Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints" was painted in 1505.

John Ritto Penniman painted this "Meetinghouse Hill, Roxbury , Massachusetts" in 1799. A little touch of home for us.

The museum exhibits many works from around the world, including this "Portrait of a Nusta in the guise of Mama Ocollo", the first Incan queen, by Cuzco (early 19th century).

Many bronze statutes can be found throughout the museum, including this Jean-Auguste Barre's "Mary of Burgundy" (1844).

"Wedding Ensemble for Bride and Groom" from the Thembu clan of Eastern Cape, South Africa (the same clan to which Nelson Mandella belonged).

This Cheyenne War Bonnet is from the Great Plains of the United States (circa 1890).