William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase painted quickly, taught constantly, and seemed to know everyone worth knowing in American art between 1880 and 1910. He trained in Munich, absorbed the dark bravura brushwork taught there, then spent the rest of his life lightening it. The shift is easy to see: the Munich portraits are built from shadow, while the Shinnecock beach scenes of the 1890s are all air and pale sand.

His Tenth Street studio in New York became famous in its own right, crowded with textiles, brass, stuffed birds and canvases, and he painted it repeatedly. Students mattered to him as much as canvases. Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper both passed through his classes, and neither painted anything like him.

The work divides roughly into three: society portraits, interiors dense with objects, and the outdoor scenes of Long Island and Brooklyn parks. The park pictures hold up best. They are small, fast, and unfussy, painted by someone who clearly enjoyed the afternoon.