The Union League Club Chicago Art Collection Handbook

This handbook offers a rare glimpse into the private art collection of the Union League Club Chicago, inaccessible to the public, yet replete with premiere works of art by artists as diverse as Claude Monet and Hebru Brantley. The collection celebrates excellence and invention by artists creating in the nineteenth century to modern times.

Founded in 1879, the Union League Club Chicago traces its roots to the Union League Club of America, which aimed to preserve the Union during the perilous Civil War epoch. Today it promotes civic, cultural, and philanthropic ideals through robust programming and outreach. Paintings, sculpture, and photography form the nucleus of the art collection. French and American Impressionism, The Hairy Who, and the Chicago Imagists represent only a few of the stylistic movements. Highlights feature "Apple Trees in Blossom" by Claude Monet, "Emma" by George Bellows; "Blooming Leftovers" by Angel Otero; "Land of Mañana" by Walter Ufer; and "Sidearm" by Richard Hunt. Women artists are particularly strong, among them Elizabeth Nourse, Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low; Evelyn Longman, Fritzi Brod, Jessie Arms Botke; Ida Josephine Burgess; Anna Lou Matthews; Gertrude Abercrombie, and Miyoko Ito. Each work of art is illustrated in color and enhanced by a seminal yet concise discussion of the artwork and artist that will delight scholars and art lovers alike.

Sally Metzler Ph.D. is the Director of the Art Collection at the Union League Club Chicago, where she has curated over 50 exhibitions featuring emerging artists. She earned her doctorate with distinction at Princeton University in Art & Archaeology. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she curated the exhibition "Bartholomäus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague," and authored the exhibition catalogue published by Yale Press and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, she authored "Theatres of Nature", a catalogue celebrating the historic dioramas. She has taught art history courses at Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago.