Cloth and Canvas: Fashion, Impressionism, and America

September 20 and 21

All tours at 11 am

“The latest fashion…is absolutely necessary for painting.  It’s what matters most.”

— Édouard Manet, 1881

To mark the 150th anniversary of the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris and the first public display of Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet - from which the art movement gets its name - Hearthstone has unveiled its own new exhibit entitled Cloth and Canvas.

Cloth and Canvas features pieces from Hearthstone’s remarkable clothing collection and pairs them with museum-quality reproductions of famous works of Impressionist art to highlight Hearthstone as a superb clothing museum while also reveling in how a few flecks of paint can become a dress, a hat, a glove.

Importantly, Impressionism did not find commercial success until the new money of the America began to recognize and buy the works for their beauty and importance.

This special tour, led by Hearthstone’s Executive Director George Schroeder, delves into this world of art and fashion.  The exhibit also offers the perfect setting to explore Hearthstone’s possible connection to bringing Impressionism to Chicago, and by extension, to the world.

Please note:

  • Tickets for the tour are $15 and are available on-line. A limited number of walk-up tickets may be available on the day of the tour.

  • Tours are limited to 12 guests per tour.

  • Please allow for 90 minutes for completion of the tour.

  • Guests will be climbing stairs to the second floor.

Cloth and Canvas

Thursday, May 30 to Sunday, Sep 29, 2024

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first display of Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise which was completed in 1872 but not exhibited until 1874.  A conservative art critic, Louis Leroy, coined the word “impressionism” as an insult to Monet’s unconventional work in a satiric review and the name for an entire art movement was born.

Hearthstone will emphasize not only this milestone but also its own art and clothing collections with an exhibit entitled Cloth and Canvas. Located throughout the museum, the exhibit will highlight Hearthstone’s remarkable historic clothing collection alongside museum-quality reproductions of avant-garde French 19th century art that depict articles of clothing similar to pieces in the museum’s collection.

As an example… Imagine Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day, executed in 1877 and which hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago, informally placed on a settee next to a top hat, an umbrella, and a women’s veiled hat that are identical to those depicted, generating an interplay between the items and the artist’s work.

The Rogers family, as regular upper-crust visitors and then residents of Chicago, were mixing with the cream of the city’s society. The family would have been exposed to the Impressionist works that were being brought to the city by the Gold Coast elite.  In fact, these pieces today constitute the foundation of the Art Institute’s Impressionism collection.

Cloth and Canvas explores a multitude of connections:

·  The interplay of clothing and its representation in painting.

·  The Gilded Age’s nouveau riche and their impact on taste and style.

·  The early connection between Chicago and European centers of art, particularly Paris.

·  The Rogers’ time in Chicago and their possible exposure to such new art.

·  Hearthstone’s historic clothing collection.

·  Hearthstone’s unparalleled art collection.

Cloth and Canvas will be included on the museum’s regular daytime tours. The museum will also host separately tickets specialty tours on art and clothing.