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Monet and Chicago

This exhibition explores the city’s unique relationship with this Impressionist artist, showcasing the Art Institute’s exemplary holdings alongside works from esteemed Chicago-based collections.

A few reminders before your visit the museum:

  • Before you arrive, purchase your ticket or renew your membership online. With your member card accessible on your phone, or your ticket either available on your phone or printed, entry will be fast and touchless. 
  • Download the museum’s app. The free app is available for both Apple and Android devices and provides audio tours for works throughout the galleries, including special exhibitions. Members can also access their member card on the app.
  • Be sure to wear a face covering before entering the building. Face coverings are required for your entire visit and should be worn to cover both your nose and mouth.
  • Some exhibitions have capacity limits and virtual lines to help promote physical distancing in the galleries and while waiting to enter. To see certain exhibitions, including Monet and Chicago and El Greco: Ambition and Defiance, you will have to join a virtual line. 
  • To join a virtual exhibition line, stop by the Modern Wing information desk or the exhibition entrance, where staff is available to help provide instructions on reserving your spot via text.
  • Once you’re checked in, you’re free to stroll through other areas of the museum. You’ll receive a text message when it’s your turn to enter the exhibition.

From the 1880s on, Chicago welcomed the “Father of Impressionism” with open arms. Today, the museum’s 33 paintings and 13 drawings constitute the largest collection of works by the artist outside of Paris.

Among the more than 70 paintings in the exhibition—from the Art Institute’s exemplary holdings and esteemed Chicago-based collections—are beloved major works as well as rarely seen still lifes, figural scenes, seascapes, and landscapes, spanning his long career from early caricatures made at Le Havre to the last splendid canvases inspired by his garden and water lily pond at Giverny. Monet and Chicago also benefits from new art-historical research and in-depth scientific study of his materials and techniques and offers an opportunity to look more closely at the artist’s oeuvre through our ever-advancing understanding of his creative process.

It’s not difficult to see what inspired such devotion and passion in these early Chicago collectors. It’s the same appeal that drew a million visitors to a Monet retrospective at the Art Institute in 1995 and draws crowds to the galleries today. Perhaps Claude Monet said it best:

“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things,” he wrote. “It’s enough to drive one mad.”

Monet and Chicago

  • Mon-Fri Closed
  • Saturday Closed
  • Sunday Closed

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