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This summer and fall, thanks to an unprecedented and exclusive loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kimbell plays host to 92 of the most celebrated works of the great Impressionist painters. The Art Institute鈥檚 Impressionist collection has never before left Chicago in such a large group, and it will be shown only at the Kimbell. The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago will be a feast for the eyes more sumptuous than even the great Barnes Collection exhibition, seen at the Kimbell in 1994. It features signature works by the most beloved group of painters of all time, including 脡douard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul 颁茅锄补苍苍别, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The fact that this succession of geniuses worked largely in the same country and within the span of a single lifetime is one of the miracles of the history of art. Between them they reinvented painting, taking color and brushwork into new realms of beauty and artistic adventure. They were painters of modern life who created a more complete and delightful picture of the world in which they lived than any artists before them or since. Carried forward by the so-called 鈥淧ost-Impressionists鈥濃�攔epresented in the exhibition by masterpieces by 颁茅锄补苍苍别, Van Gogh, and Gauguin鈥攖he Impressionist movement fostered breathtakingly original pictorial idioms that ushered in the progressive art of the 20th century. The exhibition will bring to Fort Worth many of the iconic works that have come to define the Impressionist achievement鈥攑aintings so widely disseminated in the form of reproductions in textbooks, posters, and so on, that they will be familiar even to those who have never visited the Art Institute. It is especially rich in the work of Monet. The 26 works by him form an exhibition-within-the-exhibition that shows every phase of his career, from his earliest Impressionist experiments to the great serial paintings, including 6 of wheatstacks, 4 of scenes on the Thames in London, and 3 of the water lily pond in his garden at Giverny. The exhibition also features 7 Manets, including The Races at Longchamp (1866) and Woman Reading (1879/80); the monumental Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) by Gustave Caillebotte; 12 Renoirs, including Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (1875), Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (1879), and Two Sisters (On the Terrace) (1881); 6 paintings and pastels by Degas, including Yellow Dancers (In the Wings) (1874/76) and The Millinery Shop (1879/86); 7 颁茅锄补苍苍别s, including Madame 颁茅锄补苍苍别 in a Yellow Chair (1888鈥�90) and The Bathers (1899/1904); 5 Van Goghs, including Self-Portrait (1887) and The Bedroom (1889); 7 Gauguins, including Arl茅siennes (Mistral) (1888) and The Ancestors of Tehamana (1893); and 3 Toulouse-Lautrecs, including Moulin de la Galette (1889) and At the Moulin Rouge (1892/95). Founded in 1879 as both museum and art school, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the treasure houses of the world. It has an encyclopedic collection of about 250,000 works of art and is the third largest museum in the United States. Its Impressionist collection鈥攖he jewel in its crown鈥攈as grown since the early 20th century, largely through donations from enlightened Chicago collectors. One of the most remarkable was Bertha Honor茅 Palmer, wife of Chicago retail tycoon Potter Palmer. Mrs. Potter Palmer collected with an insatiable appetite for art and the guidance of the American artist Mary Cassatt, who lived and worked in Paris and was on close terms with Degas and other members of the circle. The bulk of the Potter Palmer Collection, including a number of examples in the exhibition, entered the Art Institute in 1922. The museum鈥檚 holdings grew yet richer in 1926 with the addition of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, given by the independently wealthy Chicago artist Frederic Clay Bartlett. Such early, high-level collector-donors of Impressionist art established a proud Chicago tradition that has continued to the present. As a result, there is no collection in the world that tells more vividly, artist by artist and year by year, the story of this epoch-making artistic movement. The loan of the cr猫me-de-la-cr猫me of the Art Institute鈥檚 collection became possible because of an ambitious reinstallation and expansion project that includes extensive renovation of the galleries and the construction of a new Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano鈥攖he architect recently chosen by the Kimbell to design its own second building. The Art Institute of Chicago鈥檚 Modern Wing will open in 2009 and be devoted primarily to modern and contemporary art. The movement of the modern and contemporary collections into the new wing offered the opportunity to reinstall earlier collections鈥攊ncluding the Impressionist paintings鈥攊n newly renovated galleries. During the renovation, certain of these have to be moved or put into storage. The need temporarily to relocate the Impressionist collection created a unique opportunity for these great works to be shown outside the Art Institute鈥檚 own walls, and the Kimbell was able to seize the moment. There is no better way of seeing a familiar collection afresh than by installing it in a new space. For the director and curators at the Art Institute a large part of the attraction of the Kimbell as the exhibition鈥檚 venue was that of seeing Chicago鈥檚 masterpieces of Impressionist art hung in Fort Worth鈥檚 masterpiece of modern museum architecture. In the words of James Cuno, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute: 鈥淲e are thrilled to be collaborating with the Kimbell Art Museum on this exhibition and could not imagine a finer temporary home for these works while their galleries here at the Art Institute are being renovated. The Kimbell is a stunning museum with a first-rate collection, and we know that this exhibition will have a wide and appreciative audience in Fort Worth.鈥�