{"id":669105,"date":"2026-10-29T18:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T18:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/669105\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T18:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T18:36:14","slug":"painter-mary-cassatt-created-a-masterpiece-for-the-1893-worlds-fair-in-chicago-then-it-disappeared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/669105\/","title":{"rendered":"Painter Mary Cassatt created a masterpiece for the 1893 World\u2019s Fair in Chicago. Then, it disappeared."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Art Institute of Chicago\u2019s fall blockbuster shows the work<\/a> of impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. And at the exhibit\u2019s heart is an art mystery.<\/p>\n

The show tells the story of the giant, three-panel mural that Cassatt created for the 1893 World\u2019s Fair in Chicago. However, the piece itself is missing. After the fair ended, it went into storage and was never seen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last known location is 1912 here in Chicago, and then the paper trail ends,\u201d said curator Annelise Madsen. \u201cOne of the objectives of the exhibition is to piece together that story and try to bring it back to life for visitors. It\u2019s such an important part of Chicago history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cassatt, who was an American painter living in Paris, was commissioned to create the mural, \u201cModern Woman,\u201d for the fair\u2019s Woman\u2019s Building, which was spearheaded by the wealthy Chicago philanthropist Bertha Palmer.<\/p>\n

According to art historian Wanda Corn, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, the building was a major standout at the fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were exhibitions about women\u2019s patents, women\u2019s innovations, women\u2019s books, women as fisher women, every single thing that women were contributing to American culture at the time,\u201d Corn said.<\/p>\n

Cassatt\u2019s mural hung in the building\u2019s main hall and was mirrored by another commissioned mural by artist Mary MacMonnies, entitled \u201cPrimitive Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/p>\n

Mary Cassatt\u2019s \u201cModern Woman\u201d mural in progress, c. January 1893. The mural, unveiled during the 1893 World\u2019s Fair, was last seen in 1912. <\/p>\n

From Maud Howe Elliott, ed., Art and Handicraft in the Woman\u2019s Building of the World\u2019s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 (Goupil, 1893), 25. Courtesy of the Art Institute<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/p>\n

Mary Cassatt\u2019s mural \u201cModern Woman\u201d hangs inside the Woman\u2019s Building in the 1893 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition, as pictured in Hubert Howe Bancroft\u2019s \u201cThe Book of the Fair\u201d (Bancroft, 1893), 3:269.<\/p>\n

The murals were an enormous physical undertaking and represented a rare opportunity for women artists of the day. Cassatt\u2019s work stretched 60 feet long and 14 feet high. Three scenes show well-dressed women chasing after a metaphor for fame, playing music and tending to an orchard. That scene in the middle signifies women plucking the fruits of knowledge and science.<\/p>\n

Together, Cassatt\u2019s massive work showed, \u201cthe possibilities today of women becoming educated, becoming artists, and actually seeking fame, just as she, Mary Cassatt, herself had sought,\u201d said Corn.<\/p>\n

After the fair, the Woman\u2019s Building, like most others, was destroyed. Cassatt\u2019s mural and other artwork were put in storage. Madsen said the last known location was in the Palmer family\u2019s Gold Coast mansion, which was located on Lake Shore Drive and was once the largest private residence in the city before it was demolished in 1950.<\/p>\n

Around 1912, the then-director of the Art Institute wrote a letter to inquire about unrolling the mural to see if it could be installed temporarily at the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat paper trail is in the Art Institute\u2019s archives, and it ends with the director wondering about whether it could come out again, and it just didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Madsen said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s speculation the piece was damaged by water or perhaps burned in a fire. But could Cassatt\u2019s mural still be out there? Corn says: Not likely.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many women have looked for it. And they seem to have done an awful lot of work to pretty much determine that it is gone,\u201d Corn said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a chance that it would show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the mural did help to solidify Cassatt\u2019s reputation in the States. And, it paved the way for women artists<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to look for women doing large paintings, you\u2019re probably going to start your story in 1893,\u201d Corn said. \u201cAnd then follow it thereafter as other women stepped up and took on more larger paintings and larger commissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Art Institute of Chicago\u2019s fall blockbuster shows the work of impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. And at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-669105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}