Expanding the History of French Art: Over 2,000 French Artworks Donated To The Art Institute of Chicago
By Bronwyn May Johnston
The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) is soon to become home to the largest collection of French Old Masters within the United States following the seismic donation by art collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz. Visitors to the museum will shortly be able to delve into a dynamic array of artworks, spanning the course of three hundred years of French history.
Installation view of French Neoclassical Paintings from the Horvitz Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2024.
Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.
The Boston based investor Jeffrey Horvitz, started to curate his modern art collection whilst still a graduate student at UCLA in the 1970s, later collaborating with his wife Carol Horvitz to acquire the paintings and drawings of Old Masters. In recent years, the couple have branched into collecting Japanese ceramics, supposedly, collating the largest holding owned by a collector outside Japan.
Jacques-Louis David, Andromache Mourning the Death of Hector, 1783.
Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.
The collection acquired over four decades by the Horvitzes, has gained renown for its assortment of French artworks produced from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Despite predominantly featuring works in the Neo-Classical style, the collection—comprising of almost two thousand drawings, two hundred paintings, and fifty sculptures—also includes some compositions hailing from the Rococo and Romantic genres. Future visitors to the AIC will be able to see works such as Jacques-Louis David’s, Andromache Mourning the Death of Hector, 1783, and Pauline Auzou’s 1810 painting, Daria (Maternal Fear), as well as those by François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Théodore Géricault, and Charles Le Brun. Moreover, the collection boasts a fantastic company of women artists including, Marie-Gabrielle Capet, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Anne Vallayer Coster, and Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun, whose work will further enlighten the museum’s audience on the incredible legacy of women artists from this period. Similarly, the collection will also illuminate artists such as Jacques Bellange, Reynaud Levieux, and Nicolas Prevost, who currently have few or no works in the United States.
Pauline Auzou, Daria (Maternal Fear), 1810.
Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.
The astonishing donation follows two exhibitions of the Horvitzes’ collection at the museum, the most recent being the 2024 exhibition, French Neoclassical Paintings from The Horvitz Collection. In a statement accompanying news of the donation, Jeffrey Horvitz said:
“We have always envisioned this collection remaining as a whole in order to be more than the sum of its parts, and for it to go to a major American museum where the most visitors can experience these artistic treasures, where scholars and curators can avail of the resources and advance this important research, and where our enthusiasm will resonate long after we are gone. We spent years thinking about where the collection should ultimately go—there was no more perfect choice than the Art Institute.”
Whilst no exact figure has been disclosed by the donors or the museum, the Horvitzes have committed to bestow ‘phased financial gifts’ totalling ‘one of the largest financial gifts in the history of the Art Institute.’ This fund will hence support ongoing conservation, staffing and research initiatives at the collection.
Thus, as international art audiences eagerly await the opportunity to visit this magnificent collection, we may ponder what this will mean for the market activities surrounding sixteenth to nineteenth century French artworks in the following years.
Bibliography
Akers, Torey. “Art Institute of Chicago Gifted More Than 2,200 French Old Masters.” The Art Newspaper, February 14, 2025. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/02/14/art-institute-chicago-french-old-masters-gift-jeffrey-carol-horvitz
Art Institute of Chicago. “Collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz Give Art Institute Most Significant Private Collection of 16th- to 19th- Century French Art in the United States.” Accessed February 15, 2025. https://www.artic.edu/press/press-releases/379/collectors-jeffrey-and-carol-horvitz-give-art-institute-most-significant-private-collection-of-16th-to-19th-century-french-art-in-the-united-states
Greenberger, Alex. “Art Institute of Chicago Gains a Neoclassicist Trove with Sizable Gift of French Art.” ARTnews, February 11, 2025. https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/news/art-institute-of-chicago-jeffrey-carol-horvitz-gift-french-art-neoclassicism-1234732278/francois-andre-vincent-rinaldo-and-armida-ca-1787/
Schrader, Adam. “Art Institute of Chicago Lands a Staggering Haul of Neoclassical Masterpieces.” ArtNet, February 12, 2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-institute-chicago-horvitz-collection-french-art-2608237
Snow, Emily. “Art Institute of Chicago Acquires Over 2,000 French Artworks.” The Collector, February 12, 2025. https://www.thecollector.com/art-institute-chicago-2000-french-artworks/