The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The Midwestern Beaux-Arts: a five-step ladder printed in its own circulars, casts to still life to the figure, twelve-week terms, and Vanderpoel's plane-by-plane drawing at its core.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with roots in the Chicago Academy of Design of 1866, ran the French ladder on a Midwestern schedule. Its own Circular of Instruction for 1891-92 prints the sequence: drawing from casts of ornament and antique fragments, then full-length antique statues, then the living model nude and draped, then painting from still life, and finally painting from life, with advancement "upon the judgment of the instructors" and life-class entry by drawings "of a prescribed character" submitted to the Faculty. The school ran 9 to 5 with evening classes 7 to 9, across three twelve-week terms and a summer session. Its defining teacher was John Vanderpoel, whose plane-by-plane constructive drawing (later the book The Human Figure) shaped decades of students, Georgia O'Keeffe and J. C. Leyendecker among them, and by 1900 the school had grown departments for sculpture (under Lorado Taft), illustration, decorative design, architecture, and the training of art teachers: the American academy as full trade school.
How the system worked
Open enrollment into the term system with placement by demonstrated skill; the gates were internal, faculty judgment at each rung of the printed ladder, life-class entry by submitted drawings of a prescribed character.
The Art Institute's teaching half: the academic drawing-and-painting core surrounded, by the early 1900s, by departments of sculpture (Lorado Taft), illustration (costumed models, pen and ink to oil), decorative design (stained glass, metal, textiles), normal instruction for teachers, and a four-year architecture course.
The 1891-92 Circular's five steps, verbatim in order: ornament and antique fragments; full-length antique casts; the living model, nude and draped; still-life painting; painting from the living model. Still life as the bridge into paint is the Chicago signature, where the National Academy omitted it entirely.
"A student is advanced from one class to another... upon the judgment of the instructors" (the Circular's own words), with regular critiques and, from 1897, the Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and the Vicinity as the public measure.
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily with evening classes 7 to 9 (by 1909-10: days 9 to 4, evenings 7 to 9:30), across three twelve-week terms (fall from late September, winter from early January, spring to mid-June) plus a summer session: the year-round American schedule.
Instructor critique through the ladder, and at the center for a generation, Vanderpoel's constructive teaching: the figure analyzed into its underlying geometry and planes, the approach his book preserved after him.
Term tuition on the American model, priced per the circulars; the school's trade departments made it a working investment as much as an academy.
The curriculum, in training order
Hands, feet, and masks from the cast collection before the full-length statues: finished, carefully modeled drawings for form, proportion, and chiaroscuro.
Nude and draped models after the antique was passed, entry by drawings of a prescribed character submitted to the Faculty.
The Chicago bridge: painting begins on still life before the model, craft problems isolated before the living ones.
The painting summit in two stages, the head before the figure.
Illustration with costumed models and reproduction media, decorative design for glass, metal, and textile, architecture across four years: the ladder's professional wings.
Materials, models, and the room
- The cast collection. Ornament and antique fragments through full figures: the ladder's first two rungs in plaster.
- The constructive method. Drawing taught as analysis of underlying geometry and planes, Vanderpoel's approach, institutionalized; whether Bargue plates were formally used is unconfirmed in the school's own publications.
- The illustration studio. Costumed models, composition training, and the working media of the magazines: pen and ink, watercolor, oil.
The people
Who taught
John Vanderpoel · c. 1880s-1910
The school's defining drawing teacher: the figure plane by plane, three decades of students, and The Human Figure as the method's afterlife.
Lorado Taft · sculpture, from the 1880s
The sculpture department's builder and the Midwest's public sculptor.
Who trained here
Georgia O'Keeffe · 1905-1906
Vanderpoel's drawing classes before New York and Chase; the constructive foundation under the later abstraction.
J. C. Leyendecker · 1890s
Vanderpoel-trained before Paris and the Julian; the Arrow Collar line begins in the Chicago cast rooms.
The primary record
- The Circular of Instruction of the Art School, 1891-92: the five-step progression, the advancement rule, the hours and terms, in the school's own print.
- The Circular of Instruction, 1909-10: the mature schedule and departments.
- John Vanderpoel, The Human Figure (1907): the school's core drawing instruction, preserved as a book.
Open questions
- Formal use of the Bargue-Gérôme plates or strict sight-size is unconfirmed in SAIC's own publications, despite being era-standard elsewhere.
- Antique-stage durations were by faculty judgment and are not documented as fixed terms.
- Fee schedules by term are not reconstructed here.
Common questions
What is the School of the Art Institute of Chicago?
The Art Institute's school, with roots in the 1866 Chicago Academy of Design: the Midwest's version of the French academic ladder, printed in its own circulars, five steps from ornament casts to painting from life, surrounded by trade departments in illustration, design, sculpture, and architecture. It remains one of America's major art schools.
How did training progress at SAIC historically?
By the 1891-92 Circular's printed sequence: casts of ornament and fragments, full-length antique casts, the living model drawn, still-life painting, then painting from life, with advancement "upon the judgment of the instructors" and life entry by submitted drawings. Still life as the bridge into paint distinguished Chicago from the New York academy, which omitted it.
Who was the great teacher at SAIC?
John Vanderpoel: three decades of constructive figure drawing, the form analyzed into planes, preserved in his 1907 book The Human Figure. Georgia O'Keeffe (1905-06) and J. C. Leyendecker were among his students, and his method still anchors figure-drawing curricula.
What were SAIC's hours and terms in the 1890s?
Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with evening classes 7 to 9, across three twelve-week terms (late September to mid-June) plus a summer session, the year-round working schedule of the American schools, built for students who also held jobs.
Part of the Academies atlas, how painting was actually taught, system by system. The living version of this question: atelier vs online course, and the painters themselves in the Painter Atlas.