William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase was an American painter and one of the most influential art teachers of his time. Born in Indiana in 1849, he trained in Munich and absorbed a dashing, confident brushwork that stayed with him for life. He painted portraits, sunlit park scenes, beaches, and elegant interiors, along with strikingly fresh still lifes, all with a bravura touch and a love of light.

He was a flamboyant figure who kept a famous, exotic studio filled with objects from around the world. As a teacher he shaped a whole generation of American artists, running his own summer school on Long Island where students painted outdoors. Chase helped bring a cosmopolitan, worldly polish to American art at the turn of the century.