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Celebrating Gratitude

6 artworks from 6 artists across 6 galleries
The tour is ordered to begin from the Michigan Avenue entrance. If you are starting in the Modern Wing, simply do your tour in reverse order.

Thanksgiving Day is full of rituals—the festive meal being just one. Explore artworks that reflect some of the holiday's beloved activities.

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  • A bronze lion, deep green and muscular, looks out in the distance from its pedestal in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.

    Lion (One of a Pair, South Pedestal)

    Edward Kemeys

    Michigan Avenue entrance/steps, first level, Exterior

    Iconic guardians of the museum, Edward Kemeys's bronze lions have stood on Michigan Avenue since 1894. An essentially self-taught artist and the nation’s first great animalier (sculptor of animals), Kemeys chose for the Art Institute larger-than-life African lions; the one north of the steps is “on the prowl,” while the one to the south is “in an attitude of defiance."

    "Icons of our great city, the Art Institute's lions are also Chicago's holiday mascots. Since 1991, the lions have been decorated on the morning after Thanksgiving with custom wreaths, marking the official start of the holiday season."

  • Miniature dining room with dark wood floors, dark wooden furniture, walls decorated with floral paintings.

    A20: Virginia Dining Room, 1758

    Narcissa Niblack Thorne

    Gallery 11, lower level, Thorne Miniature Rooms

    The wallpaper is perhaps the most elaborate element of this miniature room. In her study of interior decoration sources from the 18th century, Narcissa Thorne learned of the taste among Americans and Europeans for imported Chinese wallpaper. The walls in this space are covered with a hand-painted pattern of birds, trees, and flowers produced in the same manner as the full-scale wallpapers from China 150 years earlier.

    "The Massachusetts pilgrims are famously known for hosting the first Thanksgiving in 1621, but Virginians are actually its earliest celebrants, with the first observance held in 1619 on the site of what is now Berkeley Plantation."

  • A work made of blue glass, enamel, and gilding.

    Footed Bowl

    Gallery 238, second level, Arms and Armor Galleries

    This footed bowl was intended to make a luxurious statement in late 15th-century Italy. Brilliant blue glass, meant to replicate the color of sapphires, was a specialty of Venetian glass blowers. The finely painted enameled decoration—cherubs and fantastical sphinxes—as well as the classical shape of the vessel, reflects the Italian Renaissance admiration for art and design of ancient Rome.

    "Bowls like this one were reserved for special occasions like weddings or celebratory feasts. Its rim is inscribed with the phrase TENPORE FELICI MVLTI NOMINANTVR AMICI ['In times of abundance one has lots of friends']—a fitting truism for Thanksgiving."

  • A chaotic but happy kitchen scene: A light-skinned woman in a pink dress at left bends to take a turkey out of the oven, while another at right forms a pie near a small girl playing with a kitten. Behind them, a woman selects dishware as yet another carries a basket of ingredients. A fifth woman in the back puts on a fancy hat and coat near a pair of babies reaching out from their twin high chair.

    Thanksgiving

    Doris Lee

    Gallery 161, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries

    This scene of women preparing a Thanksgiving meal became the object of national headlines when it was first exhibited at the museum in 1935 and won the prestigious Logan Purchase Prize. Josephine Logan, the donor of the prize and founder of the conservative “Sanity in Art” movement, condemned the work's exaggerated style as too modern. Despite this, Thanksgiving is a visitor favorite and one of the most popular depictions of this American ritual.

    "Lee's painting debuted in the midst of the Great Depression, a time when the themes of a national holiday, rural customs, and family life appealed to struggling Americans. Since then, it has become one of the Art Institute's most beloved paintings."

  • A work made of porcelain.

    Two Sauceboats and Two Covered Tureens from the "Washington Memorial Service"

    Chinese export porcelain

    Gallery 169, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries

    Chinese porcelain made especially for export to the United States often displays painted imagery of subjects, such as commemorative events, that appealed to wealthy American consumers. Part of a larger suite, these four pieces were commissioned around 1800 in remembrance of the nation’s first president, who died in 1799. Symbols such as the weeping willow, tomb, and eagle reflect the contemporary mourning for Washington.

    "Washington called for the first official US 'day of public thanksgiving' in 1789, acknowledging gratitude for the war's end and the Constitution's ratification. The holiday didn't become an annual tradition until Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation."

  • A work made of iron, walnut, cane, and upholstery.

    Chair

    Cevedra B. Sheldon

    Gallery 176, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries

    Patent furniture reached the height of its popularity in the last quarter of the 19th century. This folding chair was patented in 1876 and touted in advertisements as “the king of all chairs.” Adjustable by the lever on the seat rail, the chair could be set into numerous positions and used variously as a lounge chair, an invalid chair, a smoking chair, or a bed.

    "This chair would make a comfy spot for a post-meal nap. Its comfort and versatility, along with its durable materials, won praise when it was first exhibited, most likely at the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition."

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