William Merritt Chase 1849 - 1916

Mrs. Johnson (presumably Augusta Adelaide Johnson, the sitter's mother), 1903
Miss Content Aline Johnson
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri, 1949 (bequest from the above)
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996

New York, Union League Club of New York, Portraits of Americans, February 1903, no. 5
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Portraits by W.M. Chase, March 1903, no. 8
New York, National Arts Club, William Merritt Chase Retrospective Exhibition, January 1910, no. 4
Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Art and Fashion: Marie Antoinette to Jacqueline Kennedy, May-August 2006
Greenwich, Connecticut, Chase vs. Henri: The Battle over American Modernism, January-April 2007

New York Times, March 21, 1905, SM3, illustrated
J. Walker McSpadden, Famous Paintings of America, New York, 1907, illustrated opposite p. 336
Wilbur Peat, "Checklist of Known Works by William Merritt Chase," Chase Centennial Exhibition, Indianapolis, Indiana, John Herron Art Museum, 1949 (as Content Johnson)
Winifred Shilds, "A Portrait by William Merritt Chase is Willed to the Nelson Gallery," Kansas City Star, January 19, 1951, p. 23
Ross E. Taggert and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, 1973, vol. I, p. 251
Keith L. Bryant, Jr., William Merritt Chase: A Genteel Bohemian, New York, 1991, p. 297, f.n. 3 (incorrectly implies that this was a demonstration piece by Chase rather than a commissioned portrait)
Ronald G. Pisano, William Merritt Chase, Portraits in Oil, New Haven, Connecticut, 2006, p. 176-177, illustrated in color

Very good condition, unlined. Under UV: isolated spots of retouch in figure and background
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The portrait's sitter, Content Aline Johnson, was one of Chase's students both at the New York School of Art and at his Shinnecock Summer School of Art on eastern Long Island. Ron Pisano writes "Miss J is a classic example of Chase's formal portraiture, done in the manner of the great seventeenth-and eighteenth-century English portraitists Anthony Van Dyck and Thomas Gainsborough ... The pose of Chase's Miss J., with the back of her right hand on her hip, is reminiscent of that employed by John Singer Sargent in his painting Lady with a Rose (1882, Metropolitan Museum of Art), which Chase would have known well. However, Chase cropped the figure at three-quarter length to create a more dramatic and direct composition... Chase here has created a tour de force of textures: for instance, in his depiction of the white plume in Miss Johnson's hair, the brilliant diamond and emerald pins on the bodice of her dress and in the table covering" (William Merritt Chase, Portraits in Oil, p. 177).