The Gertrude Abercrombie painting Tree at Aledo, from Elmhurst University’s renowned art collection, has been traveling the country for the past year and is now on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

As part of the exhibition “Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery,” Tree at Aledo is one of almost 80 paintings in the first nationally touring retrospective of Abercrombie’s work. Milwaukee is the only Midwestern stop on the tour. The exhibition, which opened in late March, will be at the Milwaukee Art Museum, or MAM, through July 19.

Tree at Aledo has been traveling the country since January of 2025, when it was part of the Abercrombie exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine. After the exhibition ends in Milwaukee, it moves on to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, where it will be from this October until March of 2027.

“Loans to these highly regarded institutions are evidence of the importance of the (Elmhurst University) Art Collection and the value the University places on intellectual excellence, stewardship and community,” says Art Collection and Exhibitions Manager Ann Quinn Kelly.

Kelly credits the enduring popularity of the collection, and many of its pieces, to a number of campus sources.

“The directors of the A.C. Buehler Library, where much of our art is displayed, have been proactive supporters of the collection, so that’s been really important, but so has the expertise of faculty members in the Department of Art & Design who, over time, have informed the selections,” she says, adding that the Art Collection “would not be possible without generous support that the University has received from donors and funding organizations.”

As part of the collection’s focus on artists who practiced in Chicago, Tree at Aledo exemplifies Abercrombie’s landscape paintings, which depict often barren environments in simplified forms.

“Once you see her work, you will recognize it for the rest of your life,” Kelly says. “Certainly this one is representative of her style.”

Although it’s the only one currently on loan, Tree at Aledo is not the only painting Elmhurst has recently shared with other institutions.

• Miyoko Ito’s Chinoiserie was part of the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art exhibition “Space Making” in Oslo, Norway, in 2025.
• Christina Ramberg’s Glimpsed was part of “Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective” at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. The retrospective also traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Both paintings have returned to the Elmhurst University Art Collection, and can be viewed at the A.C. Buehler Library. Tree at Aledo is expected to return to campus in May of 2027.

“The collection is so accessible to the community, with the handful of sculptures outside viewable 365 days a year and the library open over 300 days a year,” Kelly says. “For those who have not seen the Art Collection, they should come visit. For those who’ve seen it but it’s been a while, welcome back.”