American Impressionism 2014-15

William Merritt Chase

Date: c. 1897

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.30

Text Entries: William Merritt Chase, an Indiana native, fascinated the New York art world with his sumptuously decorated studio and his sophisticated personal demeanor. Art studies in New York and Munich and extensive European travel developed his highly refined aesthetic attitude. President of the Society of American Artists for a decade and a popular teacher for thirty-seven years, Chase was one of the most influential artists in America. From 1891 to 1903, he pioneered one of the first and most important of the outdoor art programs, the Shinnecock Summer Art School on Long Island, New York. Chase, whose early reputation was associated with impressionism, was unanimously elected by The Ten to replace John Twachtman after his death in 1902. In Morning at Breakwater, Shinnecock Chase imaginatively contrasts the stark and rugged rocks, the man-made breakwater on Shinnecock and Peconic Bays, with the harmonious play of mothers and children on the sand united under a brilliant sunny sky. Employing divergent artistic styles in the painting as well, the artist's precise delineation of acute diagonal lines, which establish a classic perspective, is veiled by his lightly colored palette and his fluid brushwork implying an impressionistic style. Yet, the picture's calculated composition rebukes the effect of a summer morning scene spontaneously captured while painting outdoors.