Revolution to Restoration: French Drawings from The Horvitz Collection

Revolution to Restoration: French Drawings from The Horvitz Collection brings together a remarkable selection of works on paper tracing the arc of French art across one of history's most dramatic periods. Drawn from the renowned Horvitz Collection, the exhibition illuminates how artists responded to the upheavals of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era, and the eventual return of the monarchy.

Presented at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024, the show offers visitors an intimate encounter with drawings — a medium prized for its directness and spontaneity — by leading and lesser-known French masters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Together, the works reveal shifting ideals of beauty, heroism, and national identity during a period of profound transformation.