MUSEUMS

Illuminating the Impressionists

The eminent visiting Frenchman was being shown through the Art Institute of Chicago by its then president, Chauncey McCormick, when he asked in astonishment: "How can you possibly afford all these marvelous impressionist pictures?" The proud response was: "We do not buy them; we inherit them from our grandmothers."

Thanks to Chicago grandmothers like Mrs. Potter Palmer, the impressionist-loving grande dame of Chicago society in the 1890s, to say nothing of grandfathers like Hardware Heir Frederic Clay Bartlett, who gave the museum Seurat's La Grande Jatte, the Art Institute today is the possessor of a 19th century impressionist and postimpressionist collection among the best in the U.S. Under rangy (6 ft. 2 in., 195 Ibs.), Harvard-honed Charles C. Cunningham, 57, who took over as director a year ago after 20 years at Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, the museum has hewed to a policy of building on its strength (see color pages).

Chicago acquires new works primarily to illuminate the ones it already owns. Jacques Louis David's softly fragmented technique in his 1792 Portrait of the Marquise de Pastoret foreshadows the pointillism of La Grande Jatte. Gustave Caillebotte's huge (7 ft. by 9 ft.), damply breathtaking Place de I'Europe on a Rainy Day sheds light from a different angle; the wealthy Parisian civil engineer, dealing with a similar promenade scene only seven years before Seurat, builds his woman's figure with much the same solidity, but he toys with reflected light on umbrellas, cobblestones and in the boulevards more realistically than did the later impressionists. Last week the museum unveiled a Rubens Holy Family, depicting Jesus and Mary with Joseph, the infant St. John the Baptist and his mother St. Elizabeth (see color overleaf). Its fiery red, electric blues and ripe flesh tones show why Renoir (represented in Chicago by 19 oils and four drawings) looked to Rubens for inspiration.

Anyone for $50 Million? Though Chicago's 19th century French paintings are its crowning glories, the museum also owns one of the top half-dozen Oriental collections in the U.S., a superlative selection of prints and drawings, and an impressive cross section of European paintings from the 15th century to the 17th century, topped off by El Greco's soaring Assumption of the Virgin. The rambling Italian Renaissance palazzo on Michigan Avenue enfolds an art school and the recent (1962) Morton wing for modern art.

Originally constructed as part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the Art Institute has reflected the city's tastes and interests for seven decades, and fell on hard times only in the 1950s, when lackluster leadership led to a period of inaction and interoffice intrigue. Under Cunningham, probably the only museum director who ever played center on his college football team, the museum has snapped back, with attendance up a remarkable 559,000 last year, to a total of 2,516,000, and membership at an alltime high of 38,769. Cunningham means to capitalize on the revival of interest with new electronic teaching devices for museumgoers and a search for new funds for still more acquisitions. Says he, only half in jest: "I am looking for a man who has $50 million and wants to give it away."

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