The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to announce two exhibitions from The Horvitz Collection in October. French neoclassical paintings from the Horvitz Collection is on view from October 19, 2024 through January 6, 2025 and Revolution to Restoration: French Drawings from The Horvitz Collection is open from October 26, 2024 through January 6, 2025.

French neoclassical paintings from the Horvitz Collection showcases 25 paintings highlighting Neoclassicism, an artistic style that emerged in the later 1700s and flourished through the 1820s. The works frequently depict ancient or mythological events, and resonate with social and political challenges of the time, from the overthrow of an absolutist government during the French Revolution—which laid the groundwork for modern democracies—through to Napoleon’s Empire and the eventual restoration of Bourbon monarchy. This period also coincided with the rise of Enlightenment ideals, the democratization of knowledge, the spread of printed materials, and the origins of industrialization and increased urbanization.

“The Horvitz Collection is the preeminent private collection of French 18th-century art in the United States and we are honored to showcase these paintings in our galleries”, said Emerson Bowyer, Searle Curator, Painting and Sculpture of Europe. “Visitors will have the opportunity to encounter rarely seen works that epitomize an artistic style that reigned for decades in France”.

The second exhibition, Revolution to restoration: french drawings from The Horvitz Collection, features approximately 90 drawings made from the 1770s through the 1840s, one of the most turbulent periods in French history. The selected drawings showcase a variety of media—pen and ink, watercolor, chalk, and pastel—and highlight how artists of the period demonstrated a surprisingly modern combination of intellectual curiosity, political commitment, and graphic virtuosity. It highlights works by the most accomplished and influential artists of the time, including Jacques-Louis David, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, and Théodore Géricault. The exhibition explores the impact of ancient Greek and Roman art, history, and mythology on artistic production, as well as the role of the Academy, changing social norms, and convulsive contemporary events.

“What is truly remarkable about this show is the expressive versatility and powerful immediacy of drawing, and visitors will be able to see how it is used as a form of persuasion, propaganda, and, above all, aesthetic stimulation”, said Kevin Salatino, Chair of Prints and Drawings.

French neoclassical paintings from the Horvitz Collection is curated by Emerson Bowyer, Searle Curator, Painting and Sculpture of Europe and Andrea Morgan, research associate. Revolution to Restoration: French Drawings from The Horvitz Collection is curated by Kevin Salatino, Chair and Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Curator, Prints and Drawings, and Emily Ziemba, director of curatorial administration and research curator, Prints and Drawings.