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William Merritt Chase
American Impressionist
1849 - 1916
Self Portrait of William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849 - October 25, 1916) was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher.
He was born in Williamsburg (now Nineveh), Indiana, to the family of a local merchant. Chase's father moved the family to Indianapolis in 1861 and employed his son as a salesman in the family business. Chase showed an early interest in art, and studied under local, self-taught artists Barton S. Hays and Jacob Cox.
After a brief stint in the Navy, Chase's teachers urged him to travel to New York to further his artistic training. He arrived in New York in 1869, met and studied with Joseph Oriel Eaton for a short time, then enrolled in the National Academy of Design under Lemuel Wilmarth, a student of the famous French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme.
In 1870 declining family fortunes forced Chase to leave New York for St. Louis, Missouri, where his family was then based. While he worked to help support his family he became active in the St. Louis art community, winning prizes for his paintings at a local exhibition. He also exhibited his first painting at the National Academy in 1871. Chase's talent elicited the interest of wealthy St. Louis collectors who arranged for him to visit Europe for two years, in exchange for paintings and Chase's help in securing European art for their collections.
In Europe Chase settled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, a long-standing center of art training that was attracting increasing numbers of Americans. He studied under Alexander Von Wagner and Karl von Piloty, and befriended American artists Walter Shirlaw and Frank Duveneck. In Munich, Chase employed his rapidly burgeoning talent most often in figurative works that he painted in the loosely-brushed style popular with his instructors. One of these, a portrait titled "Keying Up" - The Court Jester (now in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) won a medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and gained Chase his first fame.
Keying Up - The Court Jester
The King's Jester
Chase traveled to Venice, Italy in 1877 with Duveneck and John Henry Twachtman before returning to the United States in the summer of 1878, a highly skilled artist representing the new wave of European-educated American talent. Home in America, he exhibited his painting Ready for the Ride (collection of the Union League Club) with the newly-formed Society of American Artists in 1878. He also opened a studio in New York in the Tenth Street Studio Building, home to many of the important painters of the day. He was a member of the Tilers, a group of artists and authors, among whom were some of his notable friends: Winslow Homer, Arthur Quartley and Augustus Saint Gaudens.
Venice: 1877
Venetian Balcony
Venice View of the Navy Arsenal
Gondolas Along a Venetian Canal
A Fish Market in Venice
After the Rain
Florentine Villa
Olive Trees in Florence
The Mandolin Player
Spanish Village
Sunny Spain
Carmencita
Dancing Girl
The Tamborine Girl
Gypsy Swell
A Spanish Gypsy
Woman with a Basket
Chase cultivated multiple personnae: sophisticated cosmopolitan, devoted family man, and esteemed teacher. Chase married Alice Gerson in 1886 and together they raised eight children during Chase's most energetic artistic period. His eldest daughters, Alice Dieudonnee Chase and Dorothy Bremond Chase, often modeled for their father.
In New York City, however, Chase became known for a flamboyance that he flaunted in his dress, his manners, and most of all in his studio. At Tenth Street, Chase had moved into Albert Bierstadt's old studio and had decorated it as an extension of his own art. Chase filled the studio with lavish furniture, decorative objects, stuffed birds, oriental carpets, and exotic musical instruments. The studio served as a focal point for the sophisticated and fashionable members of the New York City art world of the late 19th century. By 1895 the cost of maintaining the studio, in addition to his other residences, forced Chase to close it and auction the contents.
William Merritt Chase's Studio
Interior of the Artist's Studio
The Tenth Street Studio
In the Studio: ca 1881
In the Studio: ca 1892
In the Studio
Connoisseur
Did You Speak To Me
In the Studio
Studio Interior
The Inner Studio
Tenth Street
A Corner of My Syudio
Mrs. William Merritt Chase (Alice Gerson)
Alice Gerson
Mother and Child
The First Portrait
Mrs. Chase and Cosy
A Spanish Girl
Portrait of Mrs. Chase in Spanish Dress
A Study
The Artist's Wife
Portrait of Mrs. Chase with a Shawl
Portrait of Mrs. William Merritt Chase
Two Daughters Often Modeled for their Father
My Daughter Alice
My Daughter Alice Dieudonne Chase
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My Daughter Alice Dieudonne Chase
My Little Daughter Dorothy
Mrs. Chase and Child
Dorothy and Her Sister
Portrait of Dorothy
Dorothy
Dorothy in the Mirror
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Chase worked in all media. He was most fluent in oil painting and pastel, but also created watercolor 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.
Paintings, Etchings, and Portraits
Portrait of a Gentleman
Portrait of a Lady
Portrait of a Lady in a White Dress
Miss Edith Newbold
Portrait of a Lady in Pink
Portrait of a Lady with a Rose
Portrait of a Woman
Portrait of a Woman
Portrait of a Woman with a Black Bonnet
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Portrait of a Woman
The White Dress
Portrait of a Young Woman
Portrait of Clara Stephens
Wearing a Hat with an Orange Ribbon
Portrait of Harriet Hubbard Ayers
Portrait of Miss Dora Wheeler
Portrait of Miss Frances
Memories: 1885
A Lady in Brown
A Portrait Study
A Young Man
Alice Dieudonne Chase
Shinnecock Hills
Alice in the Shinnecock Studio
Bobbie: A Portrait Sketch
Child with Prints
Afternoon in the Park
At the Window
Back of a Nude
Girl in a Japanese Kimono
Girl in White
Portrait of Irene Dimock
Good Friends
Elsie Leslie Lyde
As Little Lord Fauntleroy
Hattie
At Play
Children Playing Parlor Croquet
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Ring Toss
Hide and Seek
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Japanese Print ca 1888
Lady in Black
Mrs. Leslie Cotton
Lady with a Rose
A Study In Curves
End of the Season
Ordering Lunch by the Seaside
Interior Oak Manor
Interior of the Baptistry at Saint Mark's
Young Woman at a Table
Making Her Toilet
Man with a Bandana
Meditation
Miss L
Isabella Lathrop
Miss Mary Margaret Sweeny
Modern Magdalen
Mrs. Meigs At The Piano Organ
Ms Helen Dixon
Ready for a Walk
Beatrice Clough Bachmann
Ready for a Ride
Reflection
Reflections
Canal Scene
Reverie
Seated Figure
Study in Pink
Portrait of Mrs. Robert P. McDougal
The Antiquary Shop
The Golden Lady
The Japanese Book
The Miror
The Model
The Moorish Warrior
The Red Gown
The Red Roofs of Harlem
A Street in Holland
The Red Sash
The Song
The White Rose
Miss Jessup
Study of a Young Girl
At Her Ease
Weary
Who Rang?
When One is Old
The Old Cottager
Lady in Green
Woman in Kimono Holding a Japanese Fan
Woman on a Dock
Young Girl
Young Girl on an Ocean Steamer
Young Girl with Flowers
Young Woman Before a Mirror
Portrait of Louis Betts
The Black Kimono
The Blue Kimono
A Friendly Call
Child on a Garden Walk
Peonies: ca 1887
Sheds and Schooner Gloucester
The Big Oleander
Unexpected Intrusion
The Garden Wall
The Moroccan Girl
The Birthday Party
Helen Velasquez Chase
The Pet Canary
Shinnecock Hills on Eastern Long Island
The Bayberry Bush
Chase Homestead Shinnecock
Shinnecock Hills: 1895
Shinnecock Hills from Canoe Place: Long Island
Shinnecock Landscape
Shinnecock Landscape
A Sunny Day at Shinnecock Bay
Afternoon by the Sea
Gravesend Bay
Along the Path at Shinnecock
At the Boat Landing
At the Seaside
Beach Scene Morning at Canoe Place
For the Little One
Hall at Shinnecock
Hall At Shinnecock
Hunting Game in Shinnecock Hills
Idle Hours
Landscape of a Shinnecock Vale
Landscape at Shinnecock Hills
Summertime ca 1886
Sunny Afternoon Shinnecock Hills
Surprise
Swollen Stream at Shinnecock ca 1895
Near Bay Ridge
Near the Beach Shinnecock
October
The Potato Patch
Garden at Shinnecock
Coastal View
Over the Hills and Far Away
Long Island Landscape after a Rain Shower
New York City Once Looked Like This
Brooklyn, Long Island, and Even Central Park
Harbor Scene Brooklyn Docks
The Consultation
The East River
Boat House: Prospect Park
A Bit of the Terrace
Early Morning Stroll
Mrs. Chase in Prospect Park
Prospect Park: 1886
Prospect Park
Croquet Lawn
Prospect Park: Brooklyn
Terrace Prospect Park
Brooklyn Landscape
Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn Navy Yard
A Park in Brooklyn: 1887
The Open Air Breakfast
The Backyard Breakfast Out of Doors
Wash Day
A Back Yark Reminiscence of Brooklyn
Tompkins Park: Brooklyn
Landscape Near Coney Island
Park Bench
An Idle Hour in Central Park
On the Lake in Central Park
On the Lake in Central Park
Lilliputian Boat-Lake
The Commons: Central Park
The Park
In the Park by a Path
The Cloisters
Still Life Paintings
Azaleas
Flowers
aka Roses
The Big Brass Bowl
Still Life With Watermelon
Still Life Brass and Glass
The Old Book
Still Life with Vegetable
Source: Art Renewal Center
This page is the work of Senex Magister
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