William Merrit Chase

Biography

William Merritt Chase was a well-known Impressionist society portraitist; he also produced several studio interiors and landscapes. 

After completing courses at New York’s National Academy of Design he enrolled in the Munich Academy in Europe. While abroad his palette was influenced by the French Impressionist painters of the time. However, he never lost reverence for the old traditional masters.

He borrowed from many international styles, past and present. In 1878 he began teaching at the Art Students League, pupils included Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Chase was an active person, he hosted social events at his studio and he even helped to organize an exhibition to raise funds to construct a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. 

Chase, who died in New York in 1916, was a gifted witness to his era.

Born: 1849, Indiana
Died: 1916, New York
Education: Studies in Indianapolis under Barton S. Hays and Jacob Cox., New York’s National Academy of Design, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich

Collections

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Brooklyn Museum, New York, N.Y.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
National Academy of Design, New York City
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C