William Merritt Chase: Modern Magdalen

PD Image: Modern Magdalen (1888), oil painting by William Merritt Chase, located at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

American Impressionist painter and teacher William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) is an important artist in the history of American Impressionism, a style characterized by loose brushwork and vibrant, vivid colors.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the trailblazers of American Impressionism lived, worked and flourished together in art colonies and shared a common aesthetic vision. In New York on eastern Long Island at Shinnecock, American impressionist artists thrived largely due to the influence of Chase, while in Boston Edmund Charles Tarbell and Frank Weston Benson became important practitioners of American Impressionism.

Perhaps best known for his portraits, William Merritt Chase worked in all media including watercolor paintings and etchings, though he was most fluent in oil painting and pastel. Being a reputed art teacher, he founded the Chase School of Art in 1896, which became the New York School of Art two years later with Chase staying on as instructor until 1907.

Having won many honors at home and abroad, Chase was a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and from 1885 to 1895, he was president of the Society of American Artists.

William Merritt Chase died on October 25, 1916 in his New York townhouse. Currently, his works are displayed in most major museums in the United States. In 1983, his home and studio at Shinnecock Hills, New York, was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the William Merritt Chase Homestead.