William Merritt Chase 1849-1916

Dr. Maguire, Brooklyn, New York
Mrs. Ellen Maguire (his wife)
Kraushaar Galleries, New York (acquired from the above)
Graham Williford, New York
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
William and Lewis Fraad
Gift from the above, 1962

Brooklyn, New York, The Brooklyn Museum; Andover, Massachusetts, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, American Painting: Selections from the Collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad, June-November 1964, no. 16, p. 24, illustrated
Vatican City State, Braccio di Carlo Magno, The Vatican Museums, A Mirror of Creation: 150 Years of American Nature Painting, September-November 1980, no. 33, illustrated
Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum, American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad, May-July 1985, no. 19, p. 42, illustrated p. 43
New York, Spanierman Gallery, William Merritt Chase: Master of American Impressionism, November 1994-January 1995, no. 39

Landscape, Shinnecock Hills belongs to a series of views of eastern Long Island's beaches and dunes painted by William Merritt Chase during the 1890s.  Beginning in 1891 when Chase opened his summer art school, the artist and his family spent their summers at Shinnecock in a house designed by Stanford White that was completed in 1892.  Chase’s forays outdoors to paint en plein air began with charming views of Central and Prospect Parks which he painted in the mid-1880s and which reached new heights at Shinnecock.  The coastal region introduced Chase to surroundings and atmospheric variations that broadened not only his subject matter, but also the experience of painting outside.  With the opportunity to paint Long Island’s sandy stretches of beaches and scrubby dunes with their bayberry bushes and long grasses, Chase had the impetus and opportunity to breathe even greater light and air into his canvases. 

Though he was greatly influenced by the French Impressionists, Chase’s attention to atmosphere and the portrayal of light and air effects was far less disciplined and analytical.  Despite an awareness of the Impressionists’ theoretical treatises on the juxtaposition of specific colors and the representations of shadows, Chase relied on spontaneous brushwork and a varied palette to convey light and the textural differences between grasses, sand, sky and water.