William Merritt Chase: Paintings

By Mildred Ferguson

William Merritt Chase was an American painter, notorious as an supporter of Impressionism and also fonder of the Chase School. He worked in all media though was most fluent in oil painting and pastel. Chase as well created watercolor paintings and etchings but is perhaps best known for his portraits, including some of the most important people of his time and members of his own family. In addition to painting portraits, he began painting landscapes in an impressionist manner. Chase typically featured people in his landscapes and depicted them in leisurely poses, relaxing on a bench, on the beach, or lying in the summer grass. His most famed still lifes was dead fish, which he liked to paint against shady surroundings. In addition to his painting, Chase actively developed an attention in teaching and won many honors at home and overseas: he was a member of the National Academy of Design, New York and president of the Society of American Artists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mildred Ferguson
• Release date: Jan 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9786050353037

Book preview

William Merritt Chase: Paintings

By Mildred Ferguson

First Edition

Copyright © 2015 by Mildred Ferguson

*****

William Merritt Chase: Paintings

*****

Foreword

William Merritt Chase (1849 – 1916) was an American painter, notorious as an supporter of Impressionism and also fonder of the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.

Chase worked in all media but was most fluent in oil painting and pastel. He as well created watercolour paintings and etchings. He is perhaps best known for his portraits, his sitters including some of the most important men and women of his time in addition to his own family. Chase often painted his wife Alice and their children, sometimes in individual portraits, and other times in scenes of domestic tranquility: at breakfast in their backyard, or relaxing at their summer home on Long Island, the children playing on the floor or among the sand dunes of Shinnecock. In an 1895 painting titled A Friendly Call, his wife is depicted wearing a yellow dress and entertaining a caller dressed in white.

In addition to painting portraits and full-length figurative works, Chase began painting landscapes in earnest in the late 1880s. His interest in landscape art may have been spawned by the landmark New York exhibit of French impressionist works from Parisian dealer Durand-Ruel in 1886. Chase is best remembered for two series of landscape subjects, both painted in an impressionist manner. The first was his scenes of Prospect Park, Brooklyn and Central Park in New York; the second were his summer landscapes at Shinnecock. Chase usually featured people prominently in his landscapes. Often he depicted woman and children in leisurely poses, relaxing on a park bench, on the beach, or lying in the summer grass at Shinnecock. The Shinnecock works