Books by Gloria Groom

The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago

by Gloria Groom, Douglas Druick

The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the largest and finest holdings of late 19th-century French art in the world. This lavishly illustrated book features over ninety paintings—nearly the entire collection—engagingly discussed in terms of the context in which so much memorable art was produced. It offers a fascinating overview of the Impressionist movement and its legacy, drawing upon the latest art-historical findings.
The volume explores works by artists who sought official sanction by the French Academy, from Manet—notorious for his bold and direct style—to Boudin and Jongkind, who are known for their light effects and deft brushwork. Paintings by Caillebotte, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley offer insight on such topics as contemporary life, the changing quality of light, and painting outdoors. Another section examines the works of artists who were influenced by Impressionism and compelled to explore new avenues of expression, including those of Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Each image, handsomely reproduced, exemplifies the diversity of ideas and extraordinary wealth of talent at work in late 19th-century France. A fascinating illustrated chronology of the formation of this world-renowned collection is also included.

The Age of French Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago

by Gloria Groom, Douglas Druick

The Art Institute of Chicago houses one of the world’s greatest collections of late-19th-century French art. This stunning book highlights more than 100 of the museum’s masterpieces, from the bold works of Édouard Manet, an important figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism, to Claude Monet’s light-filled paintings—the hallmarks of the period—and Paul Cézanne’s influential Post-Impressionist canvases.
Each beautifully reproduced work is situated in terms of the memorable era in which it was created, and collectively they exemplify the diversity of ideas and extraordinary wealth of talent at work during the remarkable Impressionist period. The publication also features a chronology—illustrated with color reproductions, archival photographs, and exhibition shots—that documents the history and formation of the Art Institute of Chicago’s renowned collection. The Age of French Impressionism offers art enthusiasts a fascinating overview of the Impressionist movement and its legacy.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Monet and Chicago

by Gloria Groom

The catalogue of the sold-out exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, a rich and unprecedented exploration of Chicago’s embrace of Claude Monet’s modernism

"Monet and Chicago is a stunner."—The Chicago Tribune (exhibition review)

In 1903, the Art Institute of Chicago became the first American museum to buy a painting by Claude Monet (1840–1926), beginning a tradition of collecting that has inextricably connected this midwestern city to the French Impressionist master. Tracing Chicago’s unique relationship with the artist, this generously illustrated volume not only features well-known works in the Art Institute’s holdings, such as the six Stacks of Wheat paintings and four Water Lilies, but also includes works on paper and rarely seen still lifes, landscapes, and photographic material from private Chicago collections. Stunning reproductions of details at actual size, a delightful essay by Adam Gopnik, and a richly illustrated chronology combine to reveal the depth of the city’s continuing devotion to an adopted artistic hero.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition Schedule: The Art Institute of Chicago
(September 5, 2020–January 18, 2021)

Van Gogh's Bedrooms

by Gloria Groom, Louis van Tilborgh, David J. Getsy, Inge Fiedler

A fascinating look at the genesis and meaning of Van Gogh’s famed paintings of his bedroom

Vincent van Gogh’s The Bedroom, a painting of his room in Arles, is arguably the most famous depiction of a bedroom in the history of art. The artist made three versions of the work, now in the collections of the Van Gogh Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musée d’Orsay. This book is the first in-depth study of their making and their meaning to the artist.

In Van Gogh’s Bedrooms, an international team of art historians, scientists, and conservators investigates the psychological and emotional significance of the bedroom in Van Gogh’s oeuvre, surveying dwellings as a motif that appears throughout his work. Essays address the context in which the bedroom was first conceived, the uniqueness of the subject, and the similarities and differences among the three works both on and below the painted surface. The publication reproduces more than 50 paintings, drawings, and illustrated letters by the artist, along with other objects that evoke his peripatetic life and relentless quest for “home.”

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition Schedule:
Art Institute of Chicago
(02/14/16–05/10/16)

Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist

by Gloria Groom

An unprecedented exploration of Gauguin’s works in various media, from works on paper to clay and furniture

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was a creative force above and beyond his legendary work as a painter. Surveying the full scope of his career-spanning experiments in different media and formats—clay, works on paper, wood, and paint, as well as furniture and decorative friezes—this volume delves into his enduring interest in craft and applied arts, reflecting on their significance to his creative process. Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist draws on extensive new research into the artist’s working methods, presenting him as a consummate craftsman—one whose transmutations of the ordinary yielded new and remarkable forms.

Beautifully designed and illustrated, this book includes essays by an international team of scholars who offer a rich analysis of Gauguin’s oeuvre beyond painting. By embracing other art forms, which offered fewer dominant models to guide his work, Gauguin freed himself from the burden of artistic precedent. In turn, these groundbreaking creative forays, especially in ceramics, gave new direction to his paintings. The authors’ insightful emphasis on craftsmanship deepens our understanding of Gauguin’s considerable achievements as a painter, draftsman, sculptor, ceramist, and printmaker within the history of modern art.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition Schedule:
The Art Institute of Chicago
(06/25/17–09/10/17)
Grand Palais, Paris
(10/09/17–01/21/18)

Cezanne

by Gloria Groom, Caitlin Haskell, Achim Borchardt-Hume, Natalia Sidlina

Evoking the sensory richness and ambitions of the beloved French artist's work through a multifaceted exploration of his art, career, and legacy

Cezanne presents a new examination of the work of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) across media and genres, surveying his career from the varied perspectives of art historians, conservation scientists, and a roster of renowned contemporary painters, including Etel Adnan, Phyllida Barlow, Paul Chan, Julia Fish, Ellen Gallagher, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Rodney McMillian, Laura Owens, and Luc Tuymans. Featuring wide-ranging essays and a series of maps tracing Cezanne's travels across the French landscape, this lavishly illustrated publication highlights the artist's favorite motifs, influence on his peers, and pivotal role in the development of modern art, in addition to presenting state-of-the-art technical analysis of his pigments and methods. It offers a fresh look at the ways in which Cezanne, driven by what he described as "strong sensations," sought to develop a visual language that could fully translate his intense feelings into paintings. In doing so, he opened up possibilities that were embraced and elaborated by artists in his time and into the present.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition Schedule:

Art Institute of Chicago (May 15-September 5, 2022)

Tate Modern, London (October 5, 2022-March 12, 2023)

Gustave Caillebotte Painting Men

by Gloria Groom, Scott Allan, Paul Perrin

This richly illustrated volume paints a complex portrait of Caillebotte, masculinity, and identity in late nineteenth-century France.

More than any other French Impressionist, painter Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) observed and depicted the many men in his life, including his brothers and friends, employees, and the workers and bourgeois in his Parisian neighborhood. Male subjects feature prominently in some of his best-known works, such as The Floor Scrapers, Man at His Bath, Young Man at His Window, Boating Party, and Paris Street, Rainy Day. The originality of his paintings of men is fully explored for the first time in this catalogue, published to accompany a major international exhibition co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Musée d'Orsay, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Alongside paintings, drawings, and photographs, as well as an appendix featuring maps and new biographical research that sheds light on Caillebotte's social network, this volume includes historically grounded thematic essays by curators and leading scholars. By exploring the complex and varied facets of Caillebotte's identity--as son, brother, soldier, bachelor, amateur, sportsman, and so on--these essays pose questions of identity, leaving space for ambiguous and fluid expressions of gender and masculinity--for both Caillebotte and the larger late nineteenth-century French world.

This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the Musée d'Orsay from October 8, 2024, to January 19, 2025, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from March 25 to May 25, 2025, and The Art Institute of Chicago from June 29 to October 5, 2025.