Chickens

Chickens — Edgar Miller. 1933.

Medium: Gouache with incising and fingerprints, on masonite, prepared with a white ground. Dimensions: 50.9 × 60.9 cm (20 1/16 × 24 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before and after the First World War, Miller described himself as “conspicuously absent—I wasn’t a good student.” Yet Miller continued to develop his artistic abilities, working in a variety of media such as sculpture, stained glass, painting, woodcarving, and tile. Despite this versatility, however, Miller wrote in 1936 that he was “just barely beginning to find [himself].” This painting was awarded the Watson F. Blair Purchase Prize in 1934 at the 13th Exhibition of Watercolors, Pastels, Drawings, and Monotypes , and the work entered the Art Institute’s collection. Chicago Tribune art critic Eleanor Jewett described this work in her exhibition review as an “Impression-istic Easter card.”

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.