The paintings of William Merritt Chase
depict a life of domestic ease and material success. He belonged to the last gen-
eration of international artists—a generation that included John Singer Sargent,
Anders Zorn, Valentin Serov, Joaquín Sorolla, Giovanni Boldini and James
Whistler—whose paintings were expected to display the benefi ts of a life of lei-
sure. “William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master,” now showing at the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston, presents Chase at his best, at the intersection of two dis-
parate infl uences: the tradition of 17th-century painting and the modern vision of
impressionism. For his portrait work Chase often favored the dark palette of the
old masters, yet he was, by some accounts, the fi rst painter in America to practice
impressionism, with its dots and dashes of broken color.
Chase played a prominent and innovative role in American art. He pretty
much invented urban landscape painting in the United States, presided over the
fi rst major landscape painting school in this country, and was for many years our
most infl uential teacher of young artists. Additionally, he was one of the fi nest
portrait and fi gure painters of his time. Although his life was marked by multiple
setbacks, Chase’s work always refl ected an irrepressible optimism.
Munich and the Tenth Street Studio
Born in Indianapolis in 1849, Chase studied briefl y at the National Academy of
Design in New York City before returning to the Midwest to assist his parents fi nan-
cially. In St. Louis, a group of businessmen, impressed by his youthful talent, off ered
material support for Chase to continue his studies in Munich. He spent six years in
BOTTOM LEFT: Painted while
Chase was studying in Munich,
The Turkish Page (Unexpected
Intrusion) (1876; oil on canvas,
41¼x37^11 ⁄ 8 ), exhibited in New York
in 1877, helped to establish the
young artist’s reputation prior to
his return to America. The painting
refl ects the then current interest in
Orientalism and, more specifi cally,
Chase’s love of complex fabrics.CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, GIFT OF THE
JOHN LEVY GALLERIES, 1923BOTTOM RIGHT: The Tenth Street
Studio (1880; oil on canvas,
36¼x48¼) gives evidence of the
expensive and exotic furnishings for
which Chase’s studio was renowned.
Although this ostentation was surely
a stratagem signaling his ambitions,
the atmosphere also refl ected a
genuine interest in the symbols and
trappings of culture.ST. LOUIS ART MUSEUM, BEQUEST OF ALBERT BLAIR48 artistsmagazine.com
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