Allure: Figure Studies by Francis Chapin

In 1927, Francis Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute of Chicago, a prize that funded the young artist’s seminal year-long study trip to Paris. Paris, in the early Twentieth Century, was the center of the art and cultural world. Many young artists commenced on a “Grand Tour” of Europe in order to study and to provide inspiration for their budding careers. Chapin would have been exposed to all of the ‘isms’ that could be found within the “School of Paris,” including Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, Expressionism and Post-Impressionism.

Chapin then returned to the United States and brought the bold colors of European Modernism along with him, adapting it to American-themed artwork. He was influenced by the figural aesthetics of Marc Chagall and the vivid palate of Raoul and Jean Dufy. While Chapin’s urban or city scenes tend to show a more dark and brooding realist character, his intimate figural works are typically light and vivacious.

He had a long career as an important instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (Oxbow) from 1934 to 1938 (Chapin was the director of the school from 1941-1945). He is fondly considered the “Dean of Chicago Artists” from that time.

Enjoy our Francis Chapin tribute to the School of Paris, “Allure: Figure Studies by Francis Chapin”, which runs at the Gallery from April 11 through May 10, 2024. Part of the proceeds of this exhibition benefits the Northwestern Medicine Department of Psychiatry.