A dazzling, innovative artist, William Merritt Chase, like Whistler, studied in Europe and fused cosmopolitan sophistication with American brio. Influenced by the Japonisme of the late nineteenth century, from the 1880s to 1914 he made a number of paintings of ladies in kimonos, surrounded by artefacts acquired on his travels. Among them are A girl in a Japanese gown, c.1887 (Museo Thyssen-Bornmisza, Madrid) (1) and The Japanese print, c.1888 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich) (2).

The present intense, close-up study of A Japanese lady demonstrates Chase’s balletic facility with the brush and ability to conjure a powerful image from a restrained palette: here white, black and touches of red. The flamboyantly decorative signature indicates that the painting was intended as an exhibition piece, and it is thought to have been exhibited in New Orleans in 1902.

D Frederick Baker, co-author of the Chase catalogue raisonné, comments of this lovely work: ‘The painting….titled A Japanese lady (based on a possible exhibition record), was painted by William Merritt Chase c.1902. Although Chase did several works of ladies (all of presumed Western descent) dressed in Japanese kimonos, the title given this work suggests that it was first and foremost a portrait of a Japanese lady. It displays the forthright nature of the best of his portraits, and the white shawl shows the bravura brushwork for which Chase was so noted. Even the ‘red’ note colour of the dress under the shawl is evidence of Chase’s oft use of the colour to enliven a composition. In 1902 Chase was teaching at the New York School of Art (previously known as the Chase School) located at 57 West 57th Street, a block east of the Frank Harth Picture Framing Company, 129 West 56th St, suggesting that it was there that he had the work framed’ (3).

1) Pisano op. cit., pp.95-6, no. I.23, illus. in colour.
2) Ibid., p.98, no.I.25, illus. in colour.
3) Letter of 13th July 2010.

WILLIAM MERRITT CHASE
Williamsburg, IN 1849 – 1916 New York

William Merritt Chase was one of the most cosmopolitan and brilliant American painters of the second half of the nineteenth century, forging his own Realist style with elements from modern German art, the Aesthetic Movement and Impressionism. Born in Williamsburg, Indiana on 1st November 1849, he studied with the portrait painter Barton Hays in Indianapolis and at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1869. From 1872 to 1878 Chase lived in Europe, studying at the Königliche Akademie in Munich, where he learned bravura brushwork and gained an admiration for Velásquez and Hals. In 1877 Chase spent nine months with John H Twachtman in Venice.

In 1878 Chase retuned to New York to teach at the Art Students’ League. He was awarded a medal of honour at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and won critical praise for his portrait Ready for the ride, 1877 (University League Club, New York), shown at the inaugural exhibition of the Society of American Artists. The 1880s were a period of intense development for Chase, with many trips to Europe from 1881. He was influenced by the work of Alfred Stevens and the Impressionists, lightening his palette. In 1885 Chase met Whistler in London; they agreed to exchange portraits, although only Chase’s of Whistler was completed (1885; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The influence of Whistler is evident in Chase’s superb series of full-length female portraits painted between 1886 and 1895, for example Lady in pink (Maria Benedict), 1888-9 (Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, RI).

Chase was an excellent pastellist and founded the American Society of Painters in Pastel with Robert Blum in 1882. He vigorously maintained his international contacts, helping to organize the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition of 1883, which raised money for the base of the Statue of Liberty and brought notable examples of contemporary European art to America.

In 1891 Chase founded the Shinnecock Summer School of Art, the first important summer art school in America, near the village of Southampton on Long Island. His 1890s Shinnecock landscapes, with their exquisite understanding of fleeting atmospheric effects, epitomize American Impressionism. Chase encouraged his various students to work directly from nature, drawing directly on the canvas with a loaded brush, and took them to Europe almost every summer from 1903 to 1912. He helped them to find their own style: his students included such disparate artists as Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler and Joseph Stella.

Chase continued to be honoured in the latter part of his career; a gallery was devoted to his work at the 1915 Panamanian Exposition in San Francisco. He died in New York on 25th October 1916.

Susan Morris The work of William Merritt Chase is represented in the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.