Public domainAmerican Gothic
Grant Wood · 1930
The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois · Founded 1879
Nighthawks, American Gothic and Seurat's La Grande Jatte are all in one building. Few museums hold three images this famous.
- 300,000+
- Works in the AIC collection
- 1879
- Founded
- Ticketed
- Admission
- 11–5
- Daily opening hours
34 works from this collection play free on your TV, phone or tablet. Press play and one starts now.
Watch it nowWhat to see
The Art Institute holds several of the most recognised paintings in America, and most visits are built around finding them.
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Seurat worked on it for two years; the Art Institute built a room around it.
Nighthawks
Hopper’s 1942 diner, bought by the museum within months of being painted.
American Gothic
Grant Wood · 1930
Grant Wood’s farmer and daughter, painted in 1930 and never lent for long.
The Old Guitarist
Picasso’s Blue Period, painted in Barcelona in 1903.
The Thorne Miniature Rooms
Sixty-eight interiors built at one inch to the foot.
Paris Street; Rainy Day
Gustave Caillebotte · 1877
Caillebotte’s 1877 intersection, life-size and wet underfoot.
The collections
The museum keeps eleven curatorial departments across a Beaux-Arts building and Renzo Piano’s Modern Wing, strongest in Impressionism, American art and architecture.
European painting and sculpture
Twelfth century to 1900, including the Impressionist rooms.
American art
American Gothic, Nighthawks, and the Arts and Crafts collection.
Modern art
Picasso, Matisse and after, in the Modern Wing.
Prints and drawings
One of the largest collections of works on paper in the country.
Architecture and design
Chicago’s own architects, and the fragments of demolished buildings.
Photography
A department since 1949, one of the first in an American museum.
Artists
The Art Institute has collected since 1879 and released more than fifty thousand images under CC0. These are the artists you can stream on Momentable.
German · 1471–1528 · German Renaissance
Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance.
France · 1841–1919 · Impressionism
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a leading French Impressionist artist. In his depiction of feminine beauty, Renoir has been described as "the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau."
United States · 1891–1942
Grant DeVolson Wood was an American artist and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest.
France · 1848–1894
Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group.
French · 1864–1901 · Post-impressionism
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa, known as Toulouse-Lautrec, was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator.
Artworks
Public-domain works from the Art Institute of Chicago, free to stream.
Two Sisters
Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1881
At the Moulin Rouge
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · 1892
The Basket of Apples
Paul Cézanne · 1893
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai · 1830
The Child's Bath
Mary Cassatt · 1893
Adam and Eve
Albrecht Dürer · 1504
Indigence et honneur
Hilaire Ledru · 1804
Statue of a Young Satyr Wearing a Theater Mask of Silenos
1
Chocolate Jar with Iron-Locked Lid
1700
Plan your visit
Hours
Thursday to Monday 11:00–17:00, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Confirm on artic.edu before you travel.
Admission
Ticketed, free for Illinois residents on selected evenings
Getting there
111 South Michigan Avenue. CTA: Adams/Wabash, or Monroe on the Red Line.
On their own site
Public-domain images are marked CC0 at artic.edu/collection.
More guides to explore
Invite AIC into your living room
34 works from this collection are available on Momentable, free to view, on your TV, phone, or tablet.