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Lot Essay
William Merritt Chase's vivid depictions of the Shinnecock hills have been repeatedly acknowledged as some of the finest accomplishments of American Impressionism. Having learned to paint in a direct and spontaneous manner from Frank Duveneck in Munich, Chase developed his signature style incorporating bold, vivacious strokes with meticulous attention to composition and color variations.
In 1890, Chase accepted an invitation to join Mrs. William S. Hoyt at her home in Shinnecock, on the eastern end of Long Island. Once there, he became acquainted with Samuel Parrish and Mrs. Henry Kirke Porter, who eventually convinced him to join in their efforts to start the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Southampton was a simple farming community with little to offer visitors other than its landscape alone. Ironically, "the nearly four thousand acres that make up Shinnecock Hills were considered of little value by the early settlers. They regarded the sand dunes covered with wire grass and scrub brush--the 'hills' in the otherwise flat landscape--as suitable only for grazing sheep. Chase's arrival at Shinnecock coincided closely with the commercial development of the region. If the area was of little practical agricultural use, by about 1890 it began to be settled by those who perceived very different value in it. A booklet published by the Long Island Railroad described the place and the state of its development in 1890, the year before Chase's arrival: 'it is hardly possible to imagine a more desirable location for a summer residence. The land is high, and from this rounded plateau one looks down upon one of the finest marine views on the Atlantic coast. The ocean, flecked with sails, is before, while behind, the winding waters of Peconic Bay, with the intermingling shores, give infinite variety of scene. Art has added to Nature's charms in the cottages that have been erected, representing the quaint English architecture of the period of Queen Anne.'" (D.S. Atkinson, William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock, Washington, DC, 1987 p. 16)
The land attracted artists as well as prominent New Yorkers seeking respite from the hot, humid summers of the city. "Southampton had become a summer resort for New Yorkers and, by the nineties, rivaled Newport, Rhode Island, as a vacation retreat. The Long Island Railroad opened the far eastern portions of the island to settlement by offering frequent service to the city. The rolling, sandy hills stretched along the southern coast, an area Chase had visited in the 1880s with the Tile Club. The terrain between Shinnecock and Peconic Bay was covered with low brush resembling the heather of the Scottish Highlands and a coarse wire grass. Wildflowers produced a garden effect in the spring. Chase knew the clear skies, ever changing light, and soft air from his previous sojourn, and accepted the invitation to return." (K.L. Bryant, Jr., William Merritt Chase, A Genteel Bohemian, Columbia, Missouri, 1991, p. 150)
Not only was the countryside beautiful, but Chase had an enormous natural gift for teaching. Chase's school became known as the strongest in the country. "Among his admonitions were the following: Take the first thing that you see on leaving your door. Anything in nature is good enough to paint. Stop that squinting. Try to see nature as you should, with your eyes wide open. Hold up a card with a square hole in it, and put what you see through the opening in your canvas. In painting a sandy beach, try to imagine that you are walking upon it. We all see color and form. Why not begin with color at once and work with a brush loaded with paint, rather than with black and white?" (William Merritt Chase, A Genteel Bohemian, p. 157)
In Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, Chase is quite evidently following his own advice. Chase provides his audience with a direct visual record of what he saw before him. With energetic and passionate sweeps of his brush, Chase recorded the seagrass and clouds drifting across the bright sky. In this, as "in all of the Shinnecock landscapes the foreground is often the most painterly area, for the handling becomes tighter and more controlled in the distance. Chase told his students, 'Do not put too much of the same handling in the foreground and middle distance. Break the surface of your shades. They will appear more natural.'" (William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock, p. 25)
Chase, who had great personal flair, became an attraction equal in stature to the magnificent Shinnecock landscape itself. "'No greater profusion of material can be found anywhere to delight the eye of an artist, in spite of the fact that the whole of Shinnecock can hardly boast of one tree,' one writer said, for, as another explained, 'all an artist has to do is to take out his easel and set it up anywhere, and there in front of him is a lovely picture.' Still another suggested that Chase's presence certified the beauty of the place: 'Of the beauties of Shinnecock hills and the surrounding country I think it unnecessary to speak. It is enough of a recommendation for them to have [been] chosen as the summer home of an artist like Mr. Chase." (William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock, p. 17) To Chase's pupils and the rest of the late nineteenth-century inhabitants of Southampton, it seemed that Shinnecock was tailor-made to Chase's specifications.
"Everyone knew that Chase was there to paint; indeed, one day one of his young daughters come running up to him shouting, 'Papa, come quickly! Here's a cloud posing for you.'" (William Merritt Chase, A Genteel Bohemian, p. 163)
This painting will be included in Ronald G. Pisano's forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's work.
In 1890, Chase accepted an invitation to join Mrs. William S. Hoyt at her home in Shinnecock, on the eastern end of Long Island. Once there, he became acquainted with Samuel Parrish and Mrs. Henry Kirke Porter, who eventually convinced him to join in their efforts to start the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Southampton was a simple farming community with little to offer visitors other than its landscape alone. Ironically, "the nearly four thousand acres that make up Shinnecock Hills were considered of little value by the early settlers. They regarded the sand dunes covered with wire grass and scrub brush--the 'hills' in the otherwise flat landscape--as suitable only for grazing sheep. Chase's arrival at Shinnecock coincided closely with the commercial development of the region. If the area was of little practical agricultural use, by about 1890 it began to be settled by those who perceived very different value in it. A booklet published by the Long Island Railroad described the place and the state of its development in 1890, the year before Chase's arrival: 'it is hardly possible to imagine a more desirable location for a summer residence. The land is high, and from this rounded plateau one looks down upon one of the finest marine views on the Atlantic coast. The ocean, flecked with sails, is before, while behind, the winding waters of Peconic Bay, with the intermingling shores, give infinite variety of scene. Art has added to Nature's charms in the cottages that have been erected, representing the quaint English architecture of the period of Queen Anne.'" (D.S. Atkinson, William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock, Washington, DC, 1987 p. 16)
The land attracted artists as well as prominent New Yorkers seeking respite from the hot, humid summers of the city. "Southampton had become a summer resort for New Yorkers and, by the nineties, rivaled Newport, Rhode Island, as a vacation retreat. The Long Island Railroad opened the far eastern portions of the island to settlement by offering frequent service to the city. The rolling, sandy hills stretched along the southern coast, an area Chase had visited in the 1880s with the Tile Club. The terrain between Shinnecock and Peconic Bay was covered with low brush resembling the heather of the Scottish Highlands and a coarse wire grass. Wildflowers produced a garden effect in the spring. Chase knew the clear skies, ever changing light, and soft air from his previous sojourn, and accepted the invitation to return." (K.L. Bryant, Jr., William Merritt Chase, A Genteel Bohemian, Columbia, Missouri, 1991, p. 150)
Not only was the countryside beautiful, but Chase had an enormous natural gift for teaching. Chase's school became known as the strongest in the country. "Among his admonitions were the following: Take the first thing that you see on leaving your door. Anything in nature is good enough to paint. Stop that squinting. Try to see nature as you should, with your eyes wide open. Hold up a card with a square hole in it, and put what you see through the opening in your canvas. In painting a sandy beach, try to imagine that you are walking upon it. We all see color and form. Why not begin with color at once and work with a brush loaded with paint, rather than with black and white?" (William Merritt Chase, A Genteel Bohemian, p. 157)
In Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, Chase is quite evidently following his own advice. Chase provides his audience with a direct visual record of what he saw before him. With energetic and passionate sweeps of his brush, Chase recorded the seagrass and clouds drifting across the bright sky. In this, as "in all of the Shinnecock landscapes the foreground is often the most painterly area, for the handling becomes tighter and more controlled in the distance. Chase told his students, 'Do not put too much of the same handling in the foreground and middle distance. Break the surface of your shades. They will appear more natural.'" (William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock, p. 25)
Chase, who had great personal flair, became an attraction equal in stature to the magnificent Shinnecock landscape itself. "'No greater profusion of material can be found anywhere to delight the eye of an artist, in spite of the fact that the whole of Shinnecock can hardly boast of one tree,' one writer said, for, as another explained, 'all an artist has to do is to take out his easel and set it up anywhere, and there in front of him is a lovely picture.' Still another suggested that Chase's presence certified the beauty of the place: 'Of the beauties of Shinnecock hills and the surrounding country I think it unnecessary to speak. It is enough of a recommendation for them to have [been] chosen as the summer home of an artist like Mr. Chase." (William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock, p. 17) To Chase's pupils and the rest of the late nineteenth-century inhabitants of Southampton, it seemed that Shinnecock was tailor-made to Chase's specifications.
"Everyone knew that Chase was there to paint; indeed, one day one of his young daughters come running up to him shouting, 'Papa, come quickly! Here's a cloud posing for you.'" (William Merritt Chase, A Genteel Bohemian, p. 163)
This painting will be included in Ronald G. Pisano's forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's work.