William Merritt Chase

William T. Evans, New Jersey

American Art Galleries, New York, 1913, lot 1

A.C. Humphreys (acquired at the above sale)

American Art Association, New York, January 1917, lot 105

Milch Galleries, New York (acquired at the above sale)

Christie's, New York, 5 June 1997, lot 75

Adelson Galleries, New York (acquired at the above sale)

Acquired from the above in June 1998 by the present owner

Brooklyn Museum; The Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890, 2000-01, p. 107, pl. 37, illustrated in color (dated circa 1888)

Ronald G. Pisano, William Merritt Chase: Landscapes in Oil, vol. III, New Haven, 2009, no. L75, p. 41, illustrated

Completed around 1886, Near Bay Ridge captures the bustling Brooklyn docks beneath a cloudy gray sky. At this moment in his career, artist William Merritt Chase was undergoing a profound artistic transition as he moved away from the dark, Munich inspired tonalism that had defined his early work toward a brighter, more modern approach shaped by the Impressionists and by artists such as Édouard Manet. In this canvas, Chase applies loose, lively brushwork and a subtly luminous palette to a distinctly contemporary subject: the industrial shoreline of Brooklyn, animated by masts, warehouses, and smokestacks. Indeed, Near Bay Ridge exemplifies Chase’s ability to merge modern color and atmosphere with a keen observational eye, portraying a dynamic hub of late nineteenth-century commerce and urban energy.