The collections at The Art Institute of Chicago are encyclopedic in their range and diversity. Like the museum itself, you cannot see everything in one day. On any online museum collection, I naturally gravitate to the drawings and prints; these are my favorite works to view online. Here is a brief synopsis of the Drawing and Print collection at AIC:

The Department of Prints and Drawings houses a distinguished collection of works on paper ranging in date from the 15th century to the present. With holdings of 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, the collection includes particular strengths in French 19th-century prints and drawings; British, French, and Italian drawings; Old Master prints; extensive 20th-century holdings; and a constantly growing collection of contemporary works on paper. Because works of art on paper are sensitive to light, they are exhibited on a rotating basis.

I have chosen a selection of works that exemplify the quality and excellence of this collection.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Portrait of Otto Mueller (1915)

Jost Amman, The Tournament (1565)

Odilon Redon, Portrait of Ari Redon (c. 1898)

William H. Bradley, The Modern Poster (1895)

Umberto Boccioni, Woman’s Head (1909)

Théodore Caruelle d’Aligny, The Acropolis of Athens (1845)

Arshile Gorky, The Artist’s Mother (1926 or 1936)

Mary Cassatt, Woman Bathing (1890/1891)

Gustave Moreau, La Peri (Mythological Subject) (1865)

Samuel Amsler, Portrait of Karl Philip Fohr (1818)

Edmond-François Aman-Jean, Reverie (c. 1900)

Cherubino Alberti, Saint Jerome in the Desert (c. 1575)

Hyacinthe Louis Aubry-Lecomte, Agandecca, French Warrior, Starno (1821)

Georgia O’Keeffe, White Shell with Red (1938)

Ivan Albright, Hail to the Pure (1976)

Heinrich Aldegrever, Bathsheba at the Bath (1535)



Ivan Albright, Mt. Semeru, Jadka-kura, Java, (1969)

Heinrich Aldegrever, Bernard Knipperdolling (1536)

The Art Institute of Chicago Collections