While the Art Institute of Chicago has long had one of the top collections of 19th-century French art in the world, a “transformative” donation of artworks announced Tuesday will give the holding a 400-year-old scope that the museum calls “wholly unique outside of France.”
Chicago collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz (a member of the Art Institute’s board of trustees) have donated 200 paintings, 50 sculptures and nearly 2,000 drawings — by some of the biggest names in French art including Charles Le Brun, François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jacques-Louis David. They also emphasized women artists such as Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun and Marie-Gabrielle Capet.
Along with the donation of art, the couple has promised a series of “phased financial gifts” for the long-term care of the collection and support more broadly of the museum’s French holding. A museum spokeswoman declined to say how much those contributions are expected to total, but officials said it will be one of the largest monetary gifts in the history of the museum.
The Horvitzes assembled their vast group of 16th- to 19th-century artworks over the past 40 years, and Art Institute leaders describe it as the “preeminent” collection of French Old Master paintings, drawings, and sculptures in the United States.
“We spent years thinking about where the collection should ultimately go — there was no more perfect choice than the Art Institute,” Jeffrey Horvitz said in a press statement.
Some of the pieces were shown in two temporary Art Institute exhibitions at the end of 2024, and museum leaders expect examples from the collection to be rotated into the museum’s permanent-exhibition galleries in coming months.