About this artwork
In The Coffee House, Alson Skinner Clark painted Chicago on a winter day, with ice floating down the river and the city’s skyscrapers looming through smoke and fog. The State Street Bridge, with its characteristic curving ironwork, draws the viewer’s eye into the picture. Clark’s scene is in the tradition of the urban realism of the French Impressionists, recalling such pictures as Claude Monet’s Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare. Like Monet, Clark sought to suggest both the ephemeral nature of fog and smoke and the atmosphere’s effect upon the forms of the city.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 179
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Department
- Arts of the Americas
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Artist
- Alson Skinner Clark
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Title
- The Coffee House
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Place
- United States (Object made in)
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Date
- 1905–1906
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Medium
- Oil on canvas
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Inscriptions
- signed: A.S. Clark
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Dimensions
- 96.5 × 76.2 cm (38 × 30 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gift in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Alson E. Clark
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Reference Number
- 1915.256
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.