Chicago Classical & Romantic

All Images © Jill Jeannides

These two murals were acquired by Rahm Immanual on behalf of the City of Chicago. Today they are on display at the Mayor’s office in the George W. Dunne Cook County Office Building in downtown Chicago.

Chicago Classical, 2000, Acrylic on Canvas, 15’ x 6’

Chicago Romantic, 2000, Acrylic on Canvas, 16’ x 5’

In 2000, Jill Jeannides created two masterworks, the large-scale landscape paintings, Chicago Classical, and Chicago Romantic. These works were inspired by Jeannides’ exploration of Chicago’s Grant Park as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She studied and painted the park from many views, including the Grant Park Rose Garden and several views of Michigan Avenue. These studies culminated in the creation of these giant canvases at a time when the South Shore Line extended to Randolph Street and the foundation of Millenium Park was under construction.

The murals capture the formal and informal aspects of Grant Park. They celebrate how the City’s lakefront parks and gardens integrate with the engineered beauty of Chicago’s train lines and skyline. Jeannides chose to use the trains as a unifying element in both paintings. The train represents the machinery responsible for the growth of Chicago as a major shipping and transportation hub. With that in mind, Jeannides viewed the train from two opposite vantage points. The view of Chicago Classical looks northeast from the Spirit of Music Garden south of Congress Parkway. Chicago Romantic looks southwest from the view that is now the site of Maggie Daley Park.

The paintings were commissioned by the School of the Art Institute’s “Creativity in the Workplace” program. The two paintings were created from direct observation and drawn out on paper. From there they were completed in three weeks on custom-made collapsible canvases in the Columbus Drive Studios at SAIC. They were leased by the Corner Bakery on Michigan Ave (at Jackson) for what extended to 7 years. they were later acquired by the City of Chicago.