La Salle Street from Court House Square, Chicago, in the Year 1865
published March 1927 (1865 depicted)
Medium
Aquatint and etching in brown, with hand-coloring, on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 37.8 × 54.4 cm (14 15/16 × 21 7/16 in.); Plate: 44.7 × 58.5 cm (17 5/8 × 23 1/16 in.); Sheet: 53.7 × 70.9 cm (21 3/16 × 27 15/16 in.)
Classification
aquatint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
61170
Art Historical Context
This aquatint and etching captures a bustling view of La Salle Street looking out from Chicago’s Court House Square in 1865, a pivotal moment in the city’s growth just after the Civil War. Published in March 1927 by French-born printmaker Raoul Varin, the work offers a nostalgic glimpse of mid-nineteenth-century Chicago—its horse-drawn carriages, early commercial buildings, and emerging urban energy—long before the Great Fire of 1871 transformed the cityscape. By depicting a scene more than six decades earlier, Varin invites viewers to reflect on Chicago’s rapid transformation into a modern me...