AMAZON.COM ITEMS WILL POP UP THE PRICE WHEN YOU HOVER THE MOUSE
OVER THE IMAGE OR TITLE.
Self Portrait,
ca. 1878
William Merritt Chase trained in Indianapolis
under the portrait painter Barton S. Hays; in New York at the
National Academy of Design from 1869 to 1871; and in Munich
under Alexander von Wagner, Karl Theodor von Piloty and Wilhelm
von Diez at the Königliche Akademie from 1872. There he
was encouraged to study the works of the old masters and to
adopt a dark palette and free brushwork. He became friends with
with Walter Shirlaw, J. Frank Currier, Frederick Dielman, Frank
Duveneck and John H. Twachtman. The latter two accompanied him
to Venice in 1877.
In 1875 he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New
York, and received a medal at the 1876 Centennial Exposition
in Philadelphia. In 1878 Chase returned to New York to teach
at the Arts Students League and he also gave private lessons
in his studio. In 1881 he returned to Europe where he met the
Belgian painter Alfred Stevens and came in contact with the
work of the Impressionists. Their influence is apparent in a
work like Sunlight and Shadow (1184; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha)
with its light palette.
In 1885 Chase met Whistler in London and they agreed to paint
each other's portrait. Only Chase's portrait of Whistler was
completed (1885; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Whistler
was concerned about its foppish nature and described it as a
'monstrous lampoon'.
Whistler's
influence can be seen in Chase's profile portrait of a seated
woman, Portrait of Dora Wheeler (1884; Cleveland Museum
of Art), and in his full-length female portraits of the late
1880s and early 1890s, eg. Lady in Black (1888; Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York). Whistler's methods of exhibiting his
works also influenced Chase who was largely responsible for
the exhibition of the Society of American Artists in 1884, which
was described as 'a symphony in the key of Chase. Chase was
an honorary member of the International Society of Sculptors,
Painters and Gravers of which Whistler was its first President.
Octave Maus, the secretary of Les XX, invited Chase to contribute
to the group's first exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts
in Brussels in 1884. Whistler was also invited along with William
Stott and John Singer Sargent.
Like Whistler, Chase was a talented pastelist (e.g. Back
of a Nude, ca 1888, Private Collection). In 1882, along
with Robert Frederick Blum, he set up the American Society of
Painters in Pastel, a society which held four exhibitions from
1884 to 1890.
In 1891 he founded the Shinnecock Summer School of Art on Long
Island where he taught until 1902. He also taught at the Brooklyn
Art Association in 1887 and from 1891 to 1895, at the Chase
School of Art from 1897 to 1907 and at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Art from 1896 to 1909. He encouraged his students to work
directly from nature and advocated that they paint directly
on to the canvas forgoing any initial preparatory sketch. His
students included Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe,
Charles Sheeler and Joseph Stella.
The great American artist William Merritt Chase (1849–1916)
completed a wide variety of portraits over his long career.
Among his subjects were presidents, businessmen, celebrities,
New York luminaries, and members of his family as well as a
number of self-portraits. Chase’s ability to capture a
likeness was renowned, yet it was his dashing and bravura brushwork
that truly set his portraits apart.
This highly anticipated book presents the entire collection
of Chase’s known portraits in oil. Each is gorgeously reproduced,
and many are published in color for the first time. This is
the second of four volumes cataloguing the complete works of
William Merritt Chase. The catalogue raisonné project
has presented immense challenges, for Chase kept no records
at all, and staggering numbers of forgeries of his work appeared
soon after he died.
Finding many of his portraits was especially difficult, as no
log book of sitters has been located and no other records exist
for those works that were not publicly exhibited. Nevertheless,
Ronald G. Pisano’s meticulous research has uncovered more
than six hundred portraits in private and public collections.
Among the most notable are Chase’s penetrating portrait
of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (The Metropolitan Museum of
Art), a commanding portrait of Dora Wheeler (Cleveland Museum
of Art), The Feather Fan featuring Chase’s oldest
daughter, Alice (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), and a 1908
self-portrait (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).
Hailed early on as a genius destined to transform American art,
William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) put his innovative stamp on
American painting during a five-year span when he suddenly changed
his technique and subject matter and began producing gorgeous,
sun-dappled Impressionist views of New York parks and coastlines-the
first Impressionist works ever painted of American landscapes.
This volume-which accompanies an exhibition of Chase's urban
landscapes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art is the first in-depth
study of this pivotal period in Chase's career. Armed with new
discoveries about the life of the man who became known as "the
artistic interpreter of Central Park and Prospect Park,"
the author shows how Chase turned to his urban scenes to heed
the nationalist call of his critics. With splendid illustrations
that evoke nostalgia for a now-gone era, this is an impressive
work of scholarship-and a book of great appeal for art lovers.
A perennial favorite of museum visitors, the works of William
Merritt Chase (1849–1916) embody the quintessential characteristics
of American Impressionism: outdoor landscapes, a colorful palette,
and an energetic brushstroke. He was also a portrait painter
of the first rank, a master of still life, a renowned teacher,
and a leader of artists’ societies.
This gorgeous book, the first of a four-volume definitive catalogue,
features Chase’s stunning paintings in pastel, which constitute
a major and previously understudied body of work by the artist;
monotypes; painted tiles and plates; watercolors; and prints.
Reconstructing Chase’s oeuvre is a daunting task, as the
artist left few records of any kind, and no documentation of
his individual works exists. Furthermore, Chase’s paintings
and pastels have been forged in great numbers throughout the
years, and many of these works still surface on the art market.
Making this long-awaited volume even more valuable is a list
of every known exhibition of Chase’s work during the artist’s
lifetime, selected examples of major post-1917 exhibitions,
and an essay on Chase’s innovative pastel technique.
The William Merritt Chase Archives at The Parrish Art Museum
document the life and art of one of America's most important
artists and complement the museum's collection of Chase's art,
the largest in the world.
Shinnecock, New York, in 1891 was the site of an important development
in American art. There, William Merritt Chase established the
nation's first outdoor summer school of painting. Chase's works,
tours of his house and studio, period photographs, and scenes
of Shinnecock's natural beauty tell the story behind Chase's
fruitful artistic endeavor.
**In
order to ensure that A Stroke of Genius receives credit for
your order you will need to start your
shopping session from our book pages. Any qualifying item you
place in your shopping cart within 24
hours following your entry from A Stroke of Genius will be credited
to us if the purchase is made
within 90 days. Credit will not be given for items already in
your cart from a previous visit.
DISCLAIMER:
There are many books where Amazon does not have a cover image
and we have searched
the web to find one. We have made every effort to accurately
represent books and their covers.
However, we are not responsible for any variations from the
cover displayed.
Whistler's
influence can be seen in Chase's profile portrait of a seated
woman, Portrait of Dora Wheeler (1884; Cleveland Museum
of Art), and in his full-length female portraits of the late
1880s and early 1890s, eg. Lady in Black (1888; Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York). Whistler's methods of exhibiting his
works also influenced Chase who was largely responsible for
the exhibition of the Society of American Artists in 1884, which
was described as 'a symphony in the key of Chase. Chase was
an honorary member of the International Society of Sculptors,
Painters and Gravers of which Whistler was its first President.
William Merritt Chase: Portraits in Oil 
William
Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890
by Ronald G Pisano – Unknown Binding: 203 pages Publisher:
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington (1983)
William Merritt Chase: Paintings in Pastel, Monotypes, Painted
Tiles and Ceramic Plates, Watercolors, and Prints (The complete
catalogue of known and documented ...
William Merritt Chase: A Genteel Bohemian 
William Merritt Chase (Library of American Art)
Color, NTSC VHS Release Date: June 20, 2000 
