A top-three museum in the world, and the collection that makes the argument most persuasively is the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist wing — Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, Monet's haystacks and water lilies in depth that rivals the Musee d'Orsay. But limiting the Art Institute to its Impressionists is like limiting Chicago to its skyline. The American art collection, the Thorne Miniature Rooms, the Modern Wing by Renzo Piano, the Arms and Armour collection, the Japanese prints — the museum is a city unto itself, and attempting to see everything in one visit is a category error. The bronze lions flanking the Michigan Avenue entrance have guarded the collection since 1894 and are the most recognized threshold in American museumgoing.
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Pick a wing and go deep. The Impressionist galleries (second floor, east) for Seurat, Monet, Renoir, and Caillebotte. The Modern Wing (Piano building) for Picasso, Matisse, and the contemporary collection. The American art galleries for Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and Grant Wood's American Gothic — two of the most iconic paintings in American culture, both here. The Thorne Miniature Rooms are a hidden treasure: 68 miniature rooms recreating historical interiors at 1:12 scale with astonishing detail. Do not try to see everything.
Weekday morning at 10:30am, 30 minutes after opening, for the Impressionist galleries before the school groups arrive. Thursday evenings offer extended hours and the galleries thin out after 5pm. Weekend afternoons are the most crowded. Illinois residents get free admission on certain evenings — check the website.
General admission is $25 for adults, with higher prices for special exhibitions. Illinois residents receive discounted admission and free Thursday evenings. The museum is enormous — 300,000 works across 11 curatorial departments — and requires multiple visits or aggressive prioritization. The Modern Wing connects to Millennium Park via the Nichols Bridgeway, a pedestrian bridge that delivers you from Renzo Piano's architecture directly to Cloud Gate. Audio guides are available and useful for the Impressionist and American art collections. The museum restaurant, Terzo Piano, has views of Millennium Park and serves above-average museum food.