About This Artwork

Charles Courtney Curran
American, 1861-1942

An Alcove in the Art Students' League, 1888

Oil on canvas
21.6 x 29.2 cm (8 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.)
signed, lower left: "CHAS. C. CURRAN 88"
Bequest of Kate L. Brewster, 1950.1514

Charles Courtney Curran documented the atmosphere and activity of the Art Students' League in New York, where he studied and later taught. Here male and female students work alongside one another to practice rendering the idealized human form. Students at the Art Students' League worked from casts of Greek and Roman sculptures, as well as from reproductions of classically inspired Renaissance works, such as Michelangelo's allegorical Night from the tomb of Guiliano de'Medici, which occupies the lower left corner of this painting. In the 19th century, Night would not only have served as an effective demonstration of antiquity but would also have represented one of the more difficult poses to illustrate. Once students mastered drawing antique and antique-inspired sculptures, they would have advanced to a class with live models.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, "On Process: Studio Themes," January 12-March 4, 2001.

Publication History

Judith A. Barter et al, The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2011), no. 77.

Ownership History

The artist; sold to James William Ellsworth (1849–1925), Chicago, 1888, for $135; possibly bequeathed to his daughter Clare Ellsworth Prentice (born 1885), 1925; possibly traded to John Levy or Henry Reinhardt Galleries, New York; Chester H. Johnson Galleries, Chicago; sold to Kate L. Brewster, Nov. 9, 1927, for $250 [as Julian Academy]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1950.