William Clusmann (American, 1859-1927) large oil on canvas painting depicting Michigan Avenue as viewed from the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago. One of the bronze "Guardian Lions" stands in the foreground as pedestrians and automobiles fill the street below, and American flags fly from the windows of skyscrapers lining the street. Signed "W. Clusmann" lower right corner. Housed under glass in a period hand carved gold leaf frame. Canvas – 30" H x 26"W. Frame – 39"H x 36"W.

Biography: William Clusmann was born in Indiana. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Design under James Farrington Gookins and with Henry Fenton Spread (founder of Spread's Art Academy, which became the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1902). On Gookins' advice, he also studied at the Royal Academy in Munich and in Stuttgart, Germany, in the 1880s. But he was most noted for his American landscapes, painted in an Impressionist style, and especially his Chicago scenes. Clusmann is said to have exhibited more than 150 works at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1889 and 1925, and he was a member of the Chicago Society of Artists and the Chicago Watercolor Club. Shortly before his death, he became active in the Hoosier Salon.

PROVENANCE: The collection of Sheila Eckenberg, by descent from her aunt, Doris Cox, of Chicago, who is believed to have acquired it in the 1970s.

CONDITION: Original, untouched condition. Scattered craquelure and areas of light buckling to canvas. Surface grime, light discolorations, and scattered dark inclusions. The canvas wrapped around the back of the edges of the stretcher is brittle with some splits and separations to the outer edges over the stretcher corners (visible only when examined out of frame, refer to photos). Frame has some scattered wear to gilding and some scattered areas of light surface abrasions with losses at edges.