William Merritt Chase
American, 1849-1916

The Lady in Pink (Portrait of the Artist’s Wife), 1886
oil on canvas
68 ½ x 38 ¾ in.

SBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory
1998.50.24



Undated photo of Chase, and (above right) another painting of Mrs. Chase in the same clothing and hairstyle, painted in the interior of The Tenth Street Studio, titled Connoisseur - The Studio Corner, from Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery.

“You must try to match your colors as nearly as you can to those you see before you, and you must study the effects of light and shade on nature's own hues and tints.” - William Merritt Chase


RESEARCH PAPER

William Merritt Chase believed that he had the most magnificent profession in the world. He was an artist, teacher, husband and father. For over forty years he experienced genuine joy from painting.

The Lady in Pink is a nearly life-size portrait of the artist’s wife, and was painted the year they married, in 1886. The young Alice Gerson is twenty years of age in this portrait; the artist was thirty-seven. They had a five-year courtship due to her young age. Alice appears both youthful and mature in this painting. She holds a steady gaze to the left (perhaps her future) while gently clutching a small bit of fabric behind her (the past). The couple was married until Mr. Chase’s death, and had eight children. Mrs. Chase never tired of modeling for her husband and was painted many times throughout their lives. There was a special emotional connection between artist and model, a special harmony. Chase loved painting all of his family members and often stopped them in their play to record the moment. His family scenes can be compared to those of Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. He, too, belonged to an affluent, carefree generation.

In the painting, Mrs. C (as she was often called) is wearing a day dress and day coat. This is not an outfit that you would leave the house in, not is it pajamas. A woman of wealth and society would wear this type of comfortable outfit in the morning to put her house in order, organize the help, and receive guests in her home. Not to be confused with the bathrobe of today, it is more closely related to a caftan, lounge wear or a sweat suit that contemporary woman wear at home.

Chase holds a truly important place in the story of American art. Not only did he create, but also he taught, promoted and collected the art of other American artists. His students gained an attitude of professionalism, knowledge of technique, and the ability to tell a story. His lectures emphasized the importance of seeing with a fresh eye, unhampered by assumption. He was a favorite teacher for many years, helping to establish New York as the new art capital of the modern world. His more notable students were Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Joseph Stella and Charles Demuth. One student recalls that it was a “red letter day” when Mr. Chase demonstrated the “full-length portrait,” which he did once or twice a year. Chase would stand in front of a bare canvas; slowly the dance began. Without a preliminary sketch he would begin to paint, looking like a fencer with a foil, jabbing his brushes at the canvas.

Using a successful formula of bold, vital, loose brushstrokes, he created lush, brilliant, and attractive images. Never compromising reality by altering a sitter’s features, Chase would achieve this by focusing on the dignified aspects of the character while paying equal attention to the decorative quality of the setting. Chase considered himself a Realist, attempting to paint whatever was in front of him in a truthful manner. He chose to portray the positive aspects of his sitters. This of course made him popular. Many considered him to be the “the most French of the American painters of the time."

Chase considered John Singer Sargent to be the greatest living painter of his time. He greatly admired the artist and was inspired by him. He also found inspiration in James McNeill Whistler; however, he found a friendship with the man impossible. “Lady in Pink” was painted at a time when Chase was viewing the works of these other great artists in the Paris Salon. The inspiration and simplicity can be seen in the museum’s nearly life-size, full-length portrait. The soft light and low contrast give the portrait gentleness. The expression and monochromatic theme are well suited for the young bride. Strong triangular composition of the body gives the painting a quiet strength, and the horizon line gives it balance. The pink color suggests a simple purity. The contrast of the dark hair is balanced with the darkness of the black shoe just peeking out from under the bottom of the skirt. The portrait is brought to life by the tiny highlights that the artist has added to the tip of the toe, and on the broach at the clasp of the day coat. These subtle highlights show the influence of one of Chase’s earliest inspirations, Diego Velazquez.

William Merritt Chase was born near Indianapolis, Indiana. As a young boy, he worked at his family’s shoe store. He was always sketching on the brown wrapping paper and showed natural talent. This led him to the artist’s studio across the street for lessons in 1867. Chase always said “knowing how to sell a lady a pair of size 6 shoes when you didn’t have the 7 she truly needed, was a valuable lesson”. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York in 1869. In 1871, he moved to St. Louis with his family and supported himself by painting. Local patrons saw his talent and sent him to study at the Royal Academy in Munich in 1872. When asked if he would like to go to Europe to study painting, he replied, “My God, I’d rather go to Europe than heaven.” Chase returned to America in 1878 to teach at the Art Students’ League in New York. Chase continued to teach and travel throughout his life. Most notably, he founded the first summer art school in America in 1891, Shinnecock Summer Art School, near South Hampton. In 1896 he founded the Chase School of Art and taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Later Chase School became the New York School of Art, and later would become Parsons, The New School for Design.

Chase lived most of his adult life in and around New York. He moved his family often. His most memorable location was the Tenth Street Studio Building, where The Lady in Pink was painted and where he and Alice first lived after their marriage. It was a highly decorated studio full of antiques, rugs, a white cockatoo, and bric-a-brac from his travels. It was a popular spot for meetings and entertainment. Chase looked just the part for his surroundings. He often dressed in top hat and spats and strolled the boulevards with his white Russian wolfhound and family, much like the people in Childe Hassam’s painting, The Manhattan Club. The Tenth Street Studio Building was near Greenwich Village in Manhattan and was home to many great artists before Chase, including Albert Bierstadt and Frederick Edwin Church.

Some critics feel that Chase was an artist stuck between two centuries. The modernists though him devoid of serious thought or intellectual commitment and others thought he lacked spiritual quality, for he depicted common everyday subjects. William Merritt Chase was a prolific painter of portraits, landscapes and still-life, renowned teacher, leader of societies of artists, gifted connoisseur of American and European paintings and a devoted family man. Chase fought the battle for American art, a staunch advocate of American art, credited for the general public gaining faith in their native artists.

Prepared for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docent Council by Loree Gold, 2001.
Typed and edited for the SBMA Docent Council website by Stephanie Amon and Lori Mohr 2012.





Portrait of William Merritt Chase by John Singer Sargent, 1902

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

After five years studying at the Munich Academy, capped off by nine months in Venice, Chase returned to New York in 1876 where he taught at the Art Students League. The elegant realism of his early style was said to give way to the brighter palette of the French Impressionists, after the artist Alfred Stevens asked him after a studio visit in 1881, “Why do you want to look like the old masters?” Chase went on to become one of the most highly regarded American Impressionists and influential teachers of the next generation, whose students included such diverse talents as Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe. This is a portrait of the artist’s third of eight children, likely done when she was in her late teens. It may have been done as a pendant to a painting of the artist’s wife, which is of around the same size and format, showing Dorothy’s mother seated at three-quarter length. By this point in Chase’s career, he enjoyed all of the trappings of a successful gentleman artist, holding regular Salons at his spacious studio on Tenth Street in New York, filled with his art, as well as the collectibles he brought home from his many travels abroad. The loose, brilliant brushwork and light palette are characteristic of Chase’s mature style, which offered a pleasant alternative to the more sober Realism of Thomas Eakins.

- Ludington Court Reopening, 2021

Following the tradition of many 19th Century American artists, Indiana-born Chase studied and worked abroad; the loose, virtuous painting style acquired from his Munich teachers won him quick acclaim back in New York. He began to work in a lighter palette about 1881 and developed a technique of softened contours and subtle, luminous color applied with great painterly skill that guaranteed his success as a portrait painter and made him one of the most “French” of American painters of the period. Three works by Chase, The Lady in Pink, Children at the Beach, and Lydia Field Emmet, all from the Margaret Mallory bequest, show the range of this artist’s repertoire and join this portrait of his wife with one of his daughter, Dorothy in Pink, already in the SBMA collection.

- SBMA wall text, 1998