First Touch of Autumn

A sandy trail curves gently through fields of tawny grass and low brush in William Merritt Chase's "First Touch of Autumn," painted in 1899. The land stretches out toward a soft, hazy line where the earth meets a pale blue sky. Greens are fading into browns and golds, hinting that summer is quietly slipping into fall. No figures appear anywhere in the scene, just the wide open countryside of Long Island going about its seasonal business.

Chase spent many summers near Shinnecock, where he led a well-known outdoor painting school and taught a whole generation of American artists. His relaxed, airy brushstrokes and attention to natural light place him firmly within American Impressionism. What stands out here is his choice of subject: not a dramatic vista or a famous landmark, but an ordinary stretch of scrubland. He found something worth painting in the plain and the overlooked, capturing the modest beauty of a landscape at the turning point of the year.