An Alcove in the Art Students' League

Inscriptions

signed, lower left: "CHAS. C. CURRAN 88"

Exhibition history

Art Institute of Chicago, First Annual Exhibition of American Painters, May 1888, cat. 105. Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available]. Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, On Process: Studio Themes, Jan. 12–Mar. 4, 2001. Memphis, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Charles Courtney Curran: Seeking the Ideal, July 27–Oct. 5, 2014; Pittsburgh, Frick Art Museum, Nov. 2, 2014–Jan. 25, 2015; South Carolina, Columbia Museum of Art, Feb. 20–May 21, 2015, cat. 37.

Publications

Judith A. Barter, et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2011), cat. 77.

Quick Overview

Artist: Charles Courtney Curran (American, 1861–1942)
Date: 1888
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 21.6 × 29.2 cm (8 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: painting
Style: Impressionism
Place: New York City
Department: Arts of the Americas
Credit line: Bequest of Kate L. Brewster
Accession no.: 1950.1514

Provenance

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.

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.