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拍品專文
In 1890, William Merritt Chase visited Shinnecock, near the village of Southampton, New York, for the first time. Captivated by the bucolic landscape, sand dunes, and lush colors, Chase created a remarkable legacy of images at the coastal community during the summers of 1891 through 1902, embracing intimate moments of everyday joy under the bright seaside light. A small, gem-like masterwork from the height of Chase’s career, Beach Scene (Morning at Canoe Place) is a remarkable picture that exemplifies the artist’s fascination with Shinnecock and showcases his unique Impressionist language.
Likely painted in the summer of 1896, Beach Scene is an intimate moment embracing the sensory experience of a quiet oceanside morning. Short brushstrokes delineate the gentle movement of calm water, the variegated blues, whites, greens, and tans providing an impression of sunlight glittering on its surface. The near-cloudless sky and the strong cut shadow on the woman’s dress reveal bright sun, and the elongated shadows to the right of both figures–likely Chase’s wife and young child Hazel–establish this as an image captured before the height and heat of the day. The delightfully vibrant, staccato brushwork harnesses the joy of Chase’s fleeting moment with his wife and child amidst a scene of stillness and serenity.
The calm and comfort portrayed in the landscape speaks to the geography of the location and its historic use. The site of the present-day Shinnecock Canal (originally completed in 1892), located at the start of the Hamptons between Hampton Bays and Shinnecock Hills, “Canoe Place was the narrowest point between the Peconic and Shinnecock Bays, so named because it was where the Shinnecock Indians sheltered and launched their canoes” (R.G. Pisano, op. cit., 2009, p. 118). The protective nature of the location adds a layer of meaning to an image of a mother and father walking beside their young daughter.
Following early training in New York City, Chase enrolled at the Munich Royal Academy in 1872. His works through the 1870s were heavily influenced by the brooding style and tones of Wilhelm Leibl and the old masters he observed during his time in Munich, but in the 1880s, his increasing interest in the light and air embraced by the French Impressionists changed the direction of his work. In New York in April 1886, Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel opened an exhibition of paintings by leading French impressionists. There, “Chase could have refreshed his acquaintance with works by Manet, and seen others by Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Gustave Caillebotte, Claude Monet, and their circle” (H. Barbara Weinberg, “William Merritt Chase,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History, accessed 8/13/25, https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/william-merritt-chase-1849-1916). While Chase’s art at Shinnecock demonstrated the deep influence of Diego Velazquez (see Cikovsky, p.53), he also embraced the looser brushwork and lighter color palette characteristic of Impressionism at large. Indeed, in the present work, the plein air tendencies so central to the European movement are on full display.
Chase’s interest in and exposure to transatlantic art history and European artists led to his unique, widely-lauded style and also allowed him a robust and performative teaching career in the United States. From 1878-1896, he taught at the Art Students League in New York. He was selected by Shinnecock Hills Summer Art School founder, Mrs. William S. Hoyt, to develop and lead the program where he taught each summer from 1891 through 1902. In addition to his widespread acclaim as an artist, Chase’s importance as an instructor ensured his vision had a lasting impact on the legacy of American Impressionism and Modern art. Several of his students were masters and foundational artists in their own right, including Rockwell Kent, who wrote of his teacher, “[Chase] went to nature, and painted it as his eyes beheld it” (D. Scott Atkinson, William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock 1891-1902, p. 23). Georgia O’Keeffe, who later studied under Chase in 1907 in New York, noted “There was something fresh and energetic and fierce about him that made him fun” (quoted in K.M. Bourguignon, “Performative Teaching of William Merritt Chase,” William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master, Washington, D.C., 2016, p. 35).
To his students, “Chase was a role model of the successful artist...Hundreds, thousands, of students caught the Chase fever and enrolled in his classes...Many of them followed him to Shinnecock Hills” (Bourguignon, ibid., pp. 35-36). To the world at large, he “played an instrumental role in charting the future course of American art while being...an esteemed member of the international avant-garde” (E. Smithgall, “From Rebel to Crusader” in ibid., p. 1). Beach Scene, an intimate painting from the height of Chase’s career, captures the energy and essence of this talented and groundbreaking force in Impressionist art.
Likely painted in the summer of 1896, Beach Scene is an intimate moment embracing the sensory experience of a quiet oceanside morning. Short brushstrokes delineate the gentle movement of calm water, the variegated blues, whites, greens, and tans providing an impression of sunlight glittering on its surface. The near-cloudless sky and the strong cut shadow on the woman’s dress reveal bright sun, and the elongated shadows to the right of both figures–likely Chase’s wife and young child Hazel–establish this as an image captured before the height and heat of the day. The delightfully vibrant, staccato brushwork harnesses the joy of Chase’s fleeting moment with his wife and child amidst a scene of stillness and serenity.
The calm and comfort portrayed in the landscape speaks to the geography of the location and its historic use. The site of the present-day Shinnecock Canal (originally completed in 1892), located at the start of the Hamptons between Hampton Bays and Shinnecock Hills, “Canoe Place was the narrowest point between the Peconic and Shinnecock Bays, so named because it was where the Shinnecock Indians sheltered and launched their canoes” (R.G. Pisano, op. cit., 2009, p. 118). The protective nature of the location adds a layer of meaning to an image of a mother and father walking beside their young daughter.
Following early training in New York City, Chase enrolled at the Munich Royal Academy in 1872. His works through the 1870s were heavily influenced by the brooding style and tones of Wilhelm Leibl and the old masters he observed during his time in Munich, but in the 1880s, his increasing interest in the light and air embraced by the French Impressionists changed the direction of his work. In New York in April 1886, Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel opened an exhibition of paintings by leading French impressionists. There, “Chase could have refreshed his acquaintance with works by Manet, and seen others by Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Gustave Caillebotte, Claude Monet, and their circle” (H. Barbara Weinberg, “William Merritt Chase,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History, accessed 8/13/25, https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/william-merritt-chase-1849-1916). While Chase’s art at Shinnecock demonstrated the deep influence of Diego Velazquez (see Cikovsky, p.53), he also embraced the looser brushwork and lighter color palette characteristic of Impressionism at large. Indeed, in the present work, the plein air tendencies so central to the European movement are on full display.
Chase’s interest in and exposure to transatlantic art history and European artists led to his unique, widely-lauded style and also allowed him a robust and performative teaching career in the United States. From 1878-1896, he taught at the Art Students League in New York. He was selected by Shinnecock Hills Summer Art School founder, Mrs. William S. Hoyt, to develop and lead the program where he taught each summer from 1891 through 1902. In addition to his widespread acclaim as an artist, Chase’s importance as an instructor ensured his vision had a lasting impact on the legacy of American Impressionism and Modern art. Several of his students were masters and foundational artists in their own right, including Rockwell Kent, who wrote of his teacher, “[Chase] went to nature, and painted it as his eyes beheld it” (D. Scott Atkinson, William Merritt Chase, Summers at Shinnecock 1891-1902, p. 23). Georgia O’Keeffe, who later studied under Chase in 1907 in New York, noted “There was something fresh and energetic and fierce about him that made him fun” (quoted in K.M. Bourguignon, “Performative Teaching of William Merritt Chase,” William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master, Washington, D.C., 2016, p. 35).
To his students, “Chase was a role model of the successful artist...Hundreds, thousands, of students caught the Chase fever and enrolled in his classes...Many of them followed him to Shinnecock Hills” (Bourguignon, ibid., pp. 35-36). To the world at large, he “played an instrumental role in charting the future course of American art while being...an esteemed member of the international avant-garde” (E. Smithgall, “From Rebel to Crusader” in ibid., p. 1). Beach Scene, an intimate painting from the height of Chase’s career, captures the energy and essence of this talented and groundbreaking force in Impressionist art.