Tuesday, March 13, 2012

William Merritt Chase, Paintings

Terrace, Prospect Park
about 1887
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4679
pastel
9 5/16 x 13 13/16 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly
 Merritt Chase drew Terrace, Prospect Park at an important moment in his career. After years of traveling back and forth to Europe and developing his skills as a portrait painter, in 1886 Chase married Alice Gerson and settled down in Brooklyn. He turned his attention to the natural world around him, especially Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Manhattan.

Girl in White

ca. 1890

oil on canvas

30 5/8 x 25 1/2 in. (77.8 x 64.7 cm.)

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Renwick Gallery 2nd Floor, Octagon Room

In his own time William Merritt Chase was best known as a portrait painter of genteel men and women, as in Girl in White, most likely a painting of one of his pupils. He described his love of portraiture: “It may truthfully be said that artists probably get more pleasure out of portrait painting than almost any other kind of art work. In portraiture they deal with character and individuality. Each sitter presents some new phase of personality.”

Head of a Man
ca. 1872-1879Diego VelázquezBorn: Seville, Spain 1599Died: Madrid, Spain 1660oil on canvas24 x 19 1/4 in. (61.0 x 49.0 cm.)http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4675

Shinnecock Hills

ca. 1895oil on canvas34 1/8 x 39 1/2 in. (86.6 x 100.4 cm)Smithsonian American Art MuseumGift of William T. Evans1909.7.11Smithsonian American Art Museum
1st Floor, South Wing
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4677In the summer of 1891, Chase began teaching art classes at a school he established in Shinnecock, Long Island (near Southampton, New York). He always preferred to paint directly from the subject, rather than from sketches, and he relished the opportunity to paint outdoors during annual stays at his summer home.

St. Jerome

ca. 1872-1879Copy after Rembrandt Van RijnBorn: Leiden, Netherlands 1606Died: Amsterdam, Netherlands 1669oil on canvas46 3/8 x 35 1/2 in. (117.7 x 90.2 cm.)http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4678

Self Portraithttp://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/monotypes/chaseobj.html

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