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Neoclassicism

Europe turns back to Greece and Rome: clear line, calm figures and civic virtue.

109 works · hang 2671 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    Birth of BacchusKároly Markó, Sr., 1826 (?)Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. RUSTIC INTERIOR: STAGE DESIGN FOR THE TEATRO DE' FELICINI, BOLOGNA
    Rustic Interior: Stage Design for the Teatro de' Felicini, BolognaAntonio Giuseppe Basoli, ca. 1810Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. Two Men Contemplating the Moon, by Caspar David Friedrich, ca. 1825–30
    Two Men Contemplating the MoonCaspar David Friedrich, ca. 1825–30Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  4. Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792), by Francisco Goya, 1787–88
    Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792)Francisco Goya, 1787–88Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

First room, south wall

  1. A work made of oil on panel.
    Head of a Guillotined ManJean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1818–19Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. We look up through an opening surrounded by a stone ledge, with clusters of people and clouds swirling into a blue sky up and away from us in this vertical, rectangular painting. From a distance, the scene looks like a complete illusion but up close, the people, clouds, and architecture are sketchily painted. The ledge running around the opening has a gold, oval medallion at each corner. Appearing to be carved from white stone, two bearded men with long hair recline against each medallion, flanking them to each side in front of large shells that curve up over the people and frames them. A few architectural structures extend up into the sky, including a pointed obelisk in the lower left corner, a pair of columns at the upper right, and what seems to be the mast of a ship at the top left. Most of the people have pale skin but some have more tan complexions, and a few, including those wearing feather headdresses near the upper left corner, have brown skin. The people wear windswept robes of pale, butter yellow, robin’s egg blue, rose pink, and ivory. The eye may drawn to a few vignettes, such as the man holding a rearing, chestnut-brown horse on the illusionistic ledge near the lower right, a nun wearing a white robe and holding a cross above him in the clouds, and, farthest away, a crowned person sitting on a throne.
    Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles IIIGiovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1762Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. A work made of engraving and etching in black on ivory wove paper.
    Ettore, Side View, from Oeuvre de CanovaAntonio Canova, 1817Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, south wall

  1. The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David, 1787
    The Death of SocratesJacques-Louis David, 1787Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A work made of etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper.
    Pedro Romero killing the halted bull, plate 30 from The Art of BullfightingFrancisco Goya, 1814/16, published 1816Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, north wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    The Destruction of Pharaoh's ArmyPhilippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, II, 1792Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. A work made of oil on masonite.
    SitgesJuan Roig y Soler, 19th centuryCourtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. A work made of oil on canvas.
    ShipwreckAfter Eugène Isabey, 19th centuryCourtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Third room, north wall

  1. Moonlight falls across several masted ships near a rocky shoreline in this horizontal painting. The sky fills the top three-quarters of the picture. A veil of slate-gray clouds is lit to pearl white around the crisp, full moon at the center of the composition. Patches of denim-blue sky are seen through breaks in the blanket of clouds. Moonlight reflects down the center of rippling, silvery-gray water that laps against a beach close to us, along the bottom edge of the painting. A tent is set up in the lower left corner of the composition. There, two women and one man stand looking at a glowing fire next to the tent. One woman holds a basket on her head, the other tucks a flat basket under one arm. The man stands between the two women, and a fourth man crouches near the fire, his back to us. In the opening of the tent, another woman kneels over a large bowl as she looks at the fire. A fifth person, a man, gazes at the fire as he sits smoking a long-stemmed pipe on a boulder. At the foot of the boulders, a man lies back against some bundles, one arm thrown up over his head. A dog curls up next to his hip. Not far from the sleeping man and in the center of the foreground, a man carries several long wooden objects, possibly oars, over one shoulder while a dog beyond him barks at the lapping surf. The beach curves like a C away from us, along the left. At the point of the curve in the middle distance, a structure like a city wall and gate jut out to the water’s edge. More buildings atop steep cliffs rise vertically beyond the gate. The shoreline curves into the distance again, and more buildings, including a lighthouse, and masted ships there are smoke-gray silhouettes. Near the lower right corner of the painting, four men pull on ropes tied around the prow of a small wooden boat while three others push it toward the land. Another man stands in the far end. A short distance beyond that boat is a tall wooden ship with three masts and rigging outlined against the night sky. Windows along the decks of that boat’s wide stern, angled toward us, glow with golden light. Beyond it and a bit to our left, another ship, smaller in scale, sails away from us. Several more ships move back to the horizon until we only see strokes of white and gray to indicate their unfurled sails.
    MoonlightClaude-Joseph Vernet, 1772Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. A work made of graphite, on tan wove paper, perimeter mounted on ivory laid paper.
    Sheet of Sketches: Cavalry Battles and Mounted SoldiersJean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1813/14Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Third room, south wall

  1. A work made of soft ground etching, with roulette, printed in red on white wove paper.
    Portrait of a Man in an Armchair, from Collection d'imitations de Dessins d'après les Principaux Maîtres Hollandais et FlamandsChristian Josi, 1826Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. The image shows three figures. Two of them are embracing in the foreground, kneeling on the ground and facing each other in a kiss. The person on the left has curly hair and appears to be wearing a coat-like garment, while the person on the right has long hair tied back and is dressed in a long robe. The third figure emerges from the bushes in the background, with shoulder-length hair, wearing a dress with a sash and a light shawl or scarf over their head. The setting includes tall trees, shrubs, and a structure with columns and arches on the right side, suggesting a garden or courtyard. Rolling hills and cloudy skies are in the distant background.
    The Fortunate RescueDaniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, 1791Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington