10 Can’t-Miss Pieces When Visiting the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago holds one of the deepest Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections outside Paris. It's a big building — here's a tight route through ten works worth crossing the city for. Gallery numbers are included, and every title links to the piece on DiscoverArt, where you can check whether it's on view right now before you go.

Start with the icon

1. Georges Seurat, [A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884](/art/07846ba1-7169-4b25-bd5e-c389a80be4f0) — Gallery 240. The museum's signature painting: millions of tiny dots resolving into a frozen Sunday by the Seine. Stand back, then walk close and watch it dissolve.

2. Georges Seurat, [Oil Sketch for La Grande Jatte](/art/6b8ac2c7-3c00-4e92-a741-c64ce180d70b) — Gallery 240. Right nearby: the loose, brushy study that preceded the dots. Seeing the two together is a lesson in how a masterpiece gets built.

The Post-Impressionist room

3. Vincent van Gogh, [Self-Portrait](/art/35cb6cda-d2c3-44e0-ab40-1b97670396b8) — Gallery 241. One of the paintings where he stares straight back at you.

4. Vincent van Gogh, [La Berceuse (Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle)](/art/bf0c1068-bb92-40e7-a61c-4434fb414223) — Gallery 241. Painted in Arles the same restless year he lost his ear.

5. Paul Cézanne, [The Bathers](/art/9415febb-f92e-4b3b-a5fa-ecda9c95fe32) — Gallery 248. The blocky, structural nudes that pointed the way to Cubism.

The Monet wall

6–8. Claude Monet, the [Stacks of Wheat](/art/624773bf-23a4-4948-9a42-00e446a1b972) series, [Water Lily Pond](/art/c417e2b9-8edf-4aaa-81e7-f61188aff282), and [Houses of Parliament, London](/art/510cf094-f479-43e4-929a-f3655bfc2c49) — Gallery 243. The Art Institute owns a remarkable group of Monet's serial paintings — the same subject across changing light — hung together so you can read the day passing. (More on Monet's fading eyesight here.)

9. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, [Two Sisters (On the Terrace)](/art/50943f0d-9cfb-4a5a-8859-b1b2986cf781) — Gallery 201. Pure Impressionist warmth, and one of the most reproduced paintings in the building.

10. Edgar Degas, [Yellow Dancers (In the Wings)](/art/73f04d76-a5cd-456f-98a0-cf6dc5f498db) — Gallery 226. Degas caught his dancers off-stage, mid-adjustment — beauty and exhaustion in the same frame.

Before you go

Galleries and loans change, so confirm anything you're making a special trip for. Each link above shows the work's current display status on DiscoverArt, and you can plan your visit through the museum's page. Give yourself two hours for just this route — you'll want them.