Moorish Interior

According to Ronald Pisano, "The present work is an oil sketch for Chase's large-scale work The Moorish Warrior (I.6) [Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York]. The study and the larger painting are quite similar, but one significant difference is in the size and prominence of the figure in the later work. In the finished work, Chase positions the warrior farther in the foreground of the composition and makes him more of a focal point than in the study. The decorative objects are a significant part of both compositions; but the figure in the study is notably smaller and placed sitting further back on the bed. In the final work, the warrior is more central in the composition and his action of studying his sword is intricately rendered. The shift in emphasis to the figure is reflected in the change in title from study to finished work from Moorish Interior to The Moorish Warrior. Chase seems to have abandoned the practice of painting a sketch in preparation for larger work once back in New York." (William Merritt Chase: Still Lifes, Interior, Figures, Copies of Old Masters and Drawings, New Haven, Connecticut, 2010, p. 79)