Shinnecock Studio Interior

Artist William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916)

Date1892

MediumPastel on paper mounted on canvas

DimensionsImage: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Frame: 26 1/8 x 30 x 3 1/2 in. (66.4 x 76.2 x 8.9 cm)

Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number1992.5

SignedLower right: to my friend A.T. Millar/W.M. Chase

Interpretation

In William Merritt Chase’s Shinnecock Studio Interior, the artist’s eldest child, Alice, examines a book of Japanese prints unfolded on the bare floor of the studio. In the right background, the red-draped posing platform and chair testify to her father’s importance as a painter of portraits, but greater importance is given to an unframed landscape directly behind and visually framing the child, who is absorbed in the art before her, seemingly unaware of the viewer. At Shinnecock, Chase’s summer home between 1891 and 1902, outdoor landscape painting and the teaching of its techniques were his main activities. The interior of his home and his family were also important subjects, however. With its tipped-up perspective, reminiscent of the Japanese prints Chase admired, this sketch-like study was a precedent for another pastel, the Terra Foundation’s Hall at Shinnecock (TF 1988.26), which features the same motif of a child seated casually on the floor as she examines a book of prints that lead the eye into the composition.

Exhibition History

American Treasures: Chase, Whistler, and the Prendergasts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 26, 1996–January 5, 1997.

Domestic Bliss: Family Life in America, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–June 22, 1997.

The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 16–December 5, 1999.

Collection Cameo companion piece, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 2000.

On Process: Studio Themes, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 4, 2001.

Modern Views: Picturing Victorian Life, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, July 2005–March 2006. (Print & Drawing Gallery 163 installation; object on view January–March 2006).

William Merritt Chase, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, Terra Foundation for American Art (organizers). Venues: The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, June 4–September 11, 2016; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, October 9, 2016–January 16, 2017; Ca’ Pesaro (Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia), Venice, Italy, February 11– May 28, 2017 [exh. cat.] (exhibited in Washington, DC and Boston, Massachusetts only) [exh. cat.]

Published References

Sotheby's New York, New York (Sale 6247, December 5, 1991): lot 64. Text lot 64; ill. cover (color detail), lot 64 (color).

The Journal of the American Medical Association 268:6 (August 12, 1992): 765. Ill. p. 765 (color).

Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association 268:6 (August 16, 1992): 692. Text p. 692; ill. cover (color).

The Journal of the American Medical Association Czechoslovakia (June 1993): cover. Ill. cover (color).

The Journal of the American Medical Association Pakistan 5:10 (December 1993): cover. Ill. cover (color).

Pisano, Ronald G.; completed by D. Frederick Baker. William Merritt Chase; The Paintings in Pastel, Monotypes, Painted Tiles and Ceramic Plates, Watercolors and Prints (The Complete Catalogue of Known and Documented Work of William Merritt Chase, Vol 1). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2006. Text p. 36; ill. pp. 36, 84 (color).

Hirshler, Erica E. William Merritt Chase. Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2016. Ill. p. 50 (color).

Smithgall, Elsa, Erica E. Hirshler, Katherine M. Bourguignon, Giovanna Ginex, and John Davis, William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master. (exh. cat., The Phillips Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, and the Terra Foundation for American Art). With a foreword by D. Frederick Baker. Washington, DC: Phillips Collection; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. Text pp. 220 (checklist). Ill. p. 155, plate 55 (color).

Dobrzynski, Judith H. “William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master Review: Between Old and New.” The Wall Street Journal (August 10, 2016). Text.

ProvenanceThe artist
Addison T. Millar, c. 1893 (gift from artist)
Dorothy Millar Macknight (daughter of Addison T. Millar and daughter-in-law of Dodge Macknight)
Private collection, Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1956 (bequeathed by Dorothy Millar Macknight to friend)
Sotheby's, New York, New York, December 5, 1991, lot 64
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (agent), Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1992