''Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago'' is a color photograph taken by German photographer

Thomas Struth Thomas Struth (born 11 October 1954) is a German photographer who is best known for his ''Museum Photographs'' series, black and white photographs of the streets of Düsseldorf and New York taken in the 1970s, and his family photographs series. ...

, in 1990. It is part of the series ''Museum Photographs'', depicting several museums and monuments all over the world, and their visitors. In this case it was the second that he took in the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

History and description

Struth spent several hours or days in each museum that he visited until finally deciding which work he wanted to capture in camera. In this case he took aim at a painting by French artist

Gustave Caillebotte Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more Realism (arts), realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was kno ...

, entitled ''

Paris Street; Rainy Day ''Paris Street; Rainy Day'' () is a large 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894), and is his best known work.Hagen, 624 It shows a number of individuals walking through the Place de Dublin, then known as the Carre ...

'', in the room where it was exhibited in the

. The painting takes the central stage in the photograph, while on his background and in a different wall, two smaller paintings are hanging at each side. The painting itself depicts several people, with their umbrellas, including a couple, in the foreground, walking through a street of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in a rainy day. Two women, seen from their backs, are facing the painting. One, at the left, wearing a pleated dress, appears with a stroller, while other, apparently of younger age, with long hair and holding her hands behind her back, seems to be looking at a closer level at the painting or perhaps is reading the label. To their left, in the background, a man pays attention to the paintings, while at the opposite side, four visitors have the same interest. The space of the painting seems to connect with the one surrounding it, to the point, as the

website, states "The women’s clothing harmonizes remarkably with the palette of the painting, and the gallery’s marble floor seems transformed into a continuation of the wet cobblestones rendered so believably by Caillebotte’s paintbrush." In a similar way, art historian Hans Belting observes "One no longer knows what is inside the painting and what is in front of it…. We feel like rubbing our eyes when the space in front of the painting transforms itself into a picture that is not separated from the painting.”

Art market

A print of this photograph sold for £635,000 (then approximately US$777.088) at Phillips, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, on 3 November 2016. This made it one of the highest prices reached in auction in the art market that year.

Public collections

There are prints of this photograph at the

Hamburger Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. It consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaal) and ...

, the

Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a privately owned contemporary art gallery in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. The collection's main focus is the American appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it i ...

, in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, and at the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago 1990s photographs 1990 in art Photographs by Thomas Struth Color photographs Photographs in the Art Institute of Chicago Gustave Caillebotte