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William Merritt Chase

Woman in White, 1902

oil on canvas

29 x 19 in.

Gift of Mrs. Albert E. Metzger in memory of Albert E. Metzger

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William Merritt Chase was born in Ninevah, Indiana and studied under Barton Hayes in Indianapolis and then briefly at the National Academy of Design.  Due to the interest and generosity of several art patrons, Chase was able to take a five-year trip to Munich, where he studied at the city’s Royal Academy.  In 1878, Chase returned to New York City, opened his Tenth Street Studio and developed his signature impressionist style.  He was a member of America’s influential group of impressionists known as The Ten, but was also an extremely influential teacher.  Chase opened the first summer school of landscape painting at his summer home in Shinnecock, Long Island.  He also taught at the Chase School in New York, which he founded, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  His students included such famous artists as Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Charles Sheeler.

It was once thought the this painting was of the artist’s eldest daughter, Alice Dieudonnée, but it was brought to the museum’s attention that the photograph of this work in the artist’s archives states that it was “painted before class. 1902 –model.”  The inscription also alters the original date that was thought to be 1910.  The change of date would also mean that this could not have been Chase’s daughter Alice because she would have been too young to be the sitter.  Since the photograph was taken by one of Chase’s students who were attending his Shinnecock School on Long island in the summer of 1902, we now know, with more certainty, the place and date the work was painted. Woman in White is an example of Chase’s impressionist style and displays the artist’s masterful brushwork and deft handling of light and shade.

Reference

Ronald G. Pisano.  William Merritt Chase: The Complete Catalogue of Known and Documents Work by William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Vol. 2: Portraits in Oil, New Haven Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007.  ISBN-13: 978-0300110210