William Merritt Chase 1849 - 1916

The artist (sold: American Art Galleries, New York, The Collection of William Merritt Chase, January 7, 1896, no. 1147)
Mr. and Mrs. Robert McDougall, Orange, New Jersey (acquired at the above sale)
By descent (sold: Sotheby's, New York, December 4, 1986, lot 171, illustrated)
Alexander Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Manoogian Collection, by 1993
Acquired by the present owner circa 2006

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 64th Annual Exhibition, December 1984-February 1895
New York, Society of American Artists, 17th Annual Exhibition, 1895, no. 70
New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery; Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Institute of Arts; Atlanta, Georgia, High Museum of Art, A Private View: American Paintings from the Manoogian Collection, April 1993-March 1994, pp. 32, 34-5, illustrated in color p. 33

Barbara Dayer Gallati, William Merritt Chase, New York, 2005, pp. 69, 65, illustrated
Ronald G. Pisano, William Merritt Chase: Portraits in Oil; The Complete Catalogue of Known and Documented Work by William Merritt Chase, New Haven, Connecticut and London, 2006, vol. II, no. OP.220, p. 121, illustrated in color

William Merritt Chase's paintings of the members of his family are among the most intimate works in his oeuvre. Painted circa 1894, Tired likely depicts the artist’s eldest daughter, Alice Dieudonnée. A staunch believer that the purpose of art was to reveal the “truth” in nature, Chase rejected the sentimental, moralizing narratives that marked much of late 19^th century Victorian painting. He instead espoused the idea that everyday sights could be converted into images of beauty. As such, Chase often enlisted his wife and children to pose for him rather than rely on professional models. He captured these subjects in fleeting moments that provide insight into his happy domestic life, while also showcasing his dynamic interpretation of the impressionist style.

The present work depicts Alice, known as “Cosy” to her family, at the age of seven or eight. Cosy frequently posed for her father during this period, so much so that the artist began to refer to her as his “Little Red Note.” The nickname referenced her role of providing the spot of red Chase believed to be critical to the success of his compositions. Because of this, she purportedly always wore something red in the event her father asked her to pose on short notice. According to Barbara Dayer Gallati, “on one occasion Cosy fainted from exhaustion during a modeling session and, as a get-well offering, Chase gave her a charm bracelet inscribed Little Red Note, on the following day. Although not necessarily related to the incident described above, this small work captures a sense of physical exhaustion, which, be it from play or from modeling, inspired the artist to convey it immediately in paint” (William Merritt Chase, New York, 1995, p. 65).

Around the time Chase painted this work, he had begun to study fabrics for their chromatic qualities and had become a frequent visitor to the textile firm Associated Artists, which was owned by the family of Dora Wheeler, one of his students at the Art Students League. In her autobiography, Dora’s mother Candace Wheeler wrote that “Chase had a passion for the beauty of textiles, and when ‘The Associated Artists’ came to their days of experiments in color he often dropped in to see what had been done that was new to him; and he was never tired of watching the variations of color in some specimen of shadow-silks when every change of position brought out the design of the textile in a new aspect” (Yesterdays in a Busy Life, New York, 1918, p. 246).

In Tired, Chase depicts the diaphanous folds of Cosy’s pink gown as well as the pillow upon which she rests her head with an expressive application of pigment. The scene is rendered primarily with varying shades of pink, although the artist's characteristic passages of vibrant red are added to embellish the pillow, invigorating the palette and adding balance to the composition. Chase employed the color pink with frequency; he painted portraits of several women wearing the color, always taking care to highlight the varied but subtle tonal gradations found in the fabrics. His vigorous treatment of the delicate colors surrounding Cosy imbues the textiles with a sense of fluidity and volume. These gestural brushstrokes contrast with the more solidly rendered face of the figure. Indeed, Chase portrays Cosy’s features with careful attention, accurately capturing the subtle physical details specific to childhood. Her eyes meet the viewer directly, giving the work a powerful intimacy and demonstrating the artist’s interest in conveying the psychological character of his subject. The strong draftsmanship the artist employs here allows him to experiment more liberally with color and texture in the background and clothing of the figure, the painterly rendering of which imbues the work with a clear sense of spontaneity and immediacy.