The Past and the Present

Arts of the Americas

c. 1945

Gertrude Abercrombie (American, 1909–1977)

Chicagoan Gertrude Abercrombie painted deeply personal works, using objects, motifs, and references knowable only to herself and her social and artistic circle. The Past and the Present depicts a spare interior, whose somber tones are partially relieved by the bright blues and greens of the furniture covering, pillow, and lampshade. It is a vision of her first apartment in Hyde Park on the city’s South Side. Although the room is precisely rendered, as if painted from direct observation, Abercrombie no longer lived there. When she made this work, she was living in the Chicago rowhouse portrayed in the painting on the back wall. Abercrombie thus collapsed time, ruminating on her past and investing it with a vivid and strange realism.

Status: On loan to Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh for Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Gertrude Abercrombie
Title: The Past and the Present
Place: Chicago (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1945
Medium: Oil on Masonite
Dimensions: 55.9 × 68.6 cm (22 × 27 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust
Reference Number: 1978.398

Art Institute of Chicago, The Fiftieth Annual Exhibition, Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1946), n.p., cat. 1, plate 3 (ill.).
“Artists of Chicago Open 50th Local Annual––Split $3,475 Purse,” The Art Digest 20, no. 14 (Apr. 15, 1946): 8 (ill.).
Katherine Kuh, “A Golden Anniversary for Chicago Art,” Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 40, no. 4, part 1 (Apr.–May 1947): 41 (ill.).
Frank Holland, “Gertrude Abercrombie Wins New Art Laurels,” Chicago Sun–Times (Nov. 21, 1948): 8X.
Betty Walker, “No Man’s Land” Chicago Sun-Times (Nov. 21, 1948): 3X (ill., the artist shown painting this work).
Frank Sandiford, “About Gertrude,” Chicago Photographic III (Summer 1950): (ill.).
Illinois Arts Council, Painters and Sculptors in Illinois 1820–1945, exh. cat. (The Illinois Arts Council, 1971), cat. 63.
Hyde Park Art Center, Gertrude Abercrombie: A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat. (Hyde Park Art Center, 1977), frontispiece, cat. 40 (ill.).
Greta Berman and Jeffrey Wechsler, Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American Paintings, 1940–1960, exh. cat. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Art Gallery, 1982), 134, cat. 2, fig. 163 (ill.).
Susan Weininger and Kent Smith, Gertrude Abercrombie, exh. cat. (Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum, 1991), 56, 91, no cat. no. (ill.).
Robet Cozzolino, With Friends: Six Magic Realists, 1940–1965, exh. cat. (Madison, WI: Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005), 31, pl. 12 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 16, fig. 10 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, ed. America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 109, fig. 20 (ill.).
Dan Nadel, ed., Gertrude Abercrombie, exh. cat. (New York: Karma Books, 2018), 243 (ill.).
Hall W. Rockefeller, “A Rehang of Hopper’s Iconic ‘Nighthawks’ Changes the Game,” Hyperallergic, Mar. 23, 2022, https://hyperallergic.com/718667/a-rehang-of-edward-hopper-iconic-nighthawks-changes-the-game (ill.).
Lois Taylor Biggs, “Gertrude Abercrombie’s Present Past,” in Perspectives (blog) Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 8, 2025, https://www.artic.edu/articles/1177/gertrude-abercrombie-s-present-past, (ill.).

New York, Associated American Artist Galleries, First Exhibition––Paintings: Gertrude Abercrombie, Jan. 24–Feb. 6, 1946, no. cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Fiftieth Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, Mar. 28–May 12, 1946, cat. 1 (awarded the William and Bertha Clusmann Prize).
Chicago Public Library, The Art Room, Gertrude Abercrombie, Nov. 1948.
Winnetka, IL, Leonard Linn, Inc., Feb. 1952, no. cat. no.
Chicago, Stevens–Gross Galleries, Gertrude Abercrombie: Paintings, Mar. 7–Apr. 4, 1952, no. cat. no.
Springfield, MA, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Twelfth Annual Spring Purchase Exhibition, Apr. 20–May 25, 1952.
Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, Gertrude Abercrombie, Nov. 4, 1956.
Springfield, Illinois State Museum, Painters and Sculptors in Illinois 1820–1945, Oct. 30–Dec. 12, 1971, cat. 63; Champaign, IL, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Feb. 6–27, 1972; Peoria, IL, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Mar. 10–Apr. 16, 1972; Chicago Historical Society, Apr. 26–June 24, 1972.
Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, Gertrude Abercrombie: A Retrospective Exhibition, Jan. 28–Mar. 5, 1977, cat. 40.
New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Art Gallery, Realism and Realities: the Other Side of American Painting 1940–1960, Jan. 17–Mar. 26, 1982, cat. 2; AL, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Apr. 15–June 13, 1982; College Park, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Sept. 7–Oct. 18, 1982.
Chicago, State of Illinois Art Gallery, Gertrude Abercrombie, Mar. 18-May 17, 1991, no cat. no.; Springfield, IL, Illinois State Museum, July 2 –Oct. 15, 1991.
Madison, WI, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, With Friends: Six Magic Realists, 1940–1965, June 18–Sept. 18, 2005, no cat. no.
Arts Club of Chicago, A Home for Surrealism, June 7, 2018-Aug. 18, 2018.

The artist (died 1977); to the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust, Chicago, from July 3, 1977 [letters from Don Baum, July 10 and Sept. 15, 1978; incoming receipt, RX11733, Sept. 20, 1978; copies in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1978.

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On loan to Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh for Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery

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On loan to Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh for Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery

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