Hours of fun on the Art Institute of Chicago website. The Art Institute has revamped their website and it’s fantastic. Not only can you access and use 50,000 images for free but you can give yourself an art education by looking at and reading about all of the art. Each image offers a brief description of the artwork as well as some background info and talks about interesting details of the work. They’ve also enhanced the image viewing capabilities on object pages, which means that you can see much greater detail on objects than before.
Explore the Thorne Rooms NEW!
We’ve all been seeing a whole lot of our own homes lately. If you’re itching to venture into some new spaces—from long ago and far away—we have the perfect escape: the Thorne Miniature Rooms. Delve into the charming details of these imaginative interiors with this highlights tour, or learn more about a recent addition to one of the rooms—a dollhouse that’s just the right size.
As you explore the Thorne Rooms, let your imagination run wild. Pick a room you’d like to call your own and imagine the characters that live there, create your own miniature space, write a play that takes place in one or many rooms, or play “I spy”—the possibilities are endless!
Hours of fun on the Art Institute of Chicago website – Essentials Videos NEW!
Take a trip through the galleries with these recently released videos featuring iconic works of art from our collection.
Search by Color NEW!
Spin the wheel of color to discover hidden gems from our collection—you might even find a new favorite color or two.
Searching The Collection
Start by clicking on “The Collection” tab. You can search by artist, the name of a work using the search box. Of you can use the slider below the search to look for works grouped by categories such as Cityscapes, Impressionism, Animals and more. On the left click on “Show filters.” You can sort and further refine your search.
Example: Searching for all the Monet’s
Let’s say I want to see all the Monet’s on view currently in the museum. I typed in “Monet.” The site offers the option “by Claude Monet”, I select that. If you don’t select that it will pull up anything with Monet’s name in it including works by other artists. Initially 46 works come up. I then click on the “On view” box. Now it’s down to 28. Now I want to see the works in order, by date. They may not be displayed that way given space constraints but I want to view the works in order of when they were painted. I click on “Show filters” on the left, them “Sort” then click in the box “By relevance” and a menu will drop down. Voila! You can print that out and take it with you.
If you search someone, like Picasso, who worked in many mediums but you just want to see his paintings or bronze (that’s the model of the Picasso in Daley Plaza) you can sort for that on the left.
Enhanced images
They’ve also enhanced the image viewing capabilities on object pages, which means that you can see much greater detail on objects than before. You can actually see the brush strokes in this Renoir.
Close up of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Chrysanthemums, 1881–1882. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Chrysanthemums, 1881–1882. The Art Institute of Chicago.
