.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Executed during five consecutive summers spent in Brooklyn and Manhattan between 1886 and 1890, William Merritt Chase’s highly regarded scenes of New York’s parks represent an important transitional phase in the artist's career, and in the history of American painting overall. As Barbara Dyer Gallati describes, these works are “not only beautiful but also remarkably innovative, in that they are the first paintings in which an Impressionist style was used to depict American subjects.” (William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890, exhibition catalogue, Brooklyn, New York, 1999, p. 13) Afternoon in the Park marries Chase’s renowned urban landscapes from this period with his exceptional aptitude for portraiture into a brilliant work executed in the wonderfully vivid and immersive medium of pastel.
In the present work, the artist’s wife, Alice Gerson Chase, poses for the central figure who reclines elegantly in a chair on the manicured, sun-dappled lawn of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She is likely pictured attending a concert at the small bandstand near the Lyceum. While in prior years Chase had traveled abroad during the summer months, in 1886 he and Alice had married, and in 1888, she gave birth to the first of their eight children. Realizing that his resources would not readily permit the growing family to make annual summer trips to Europe, the Chases remained at home in the summers. Living in Brooklyn and later Greenwich Village, the artist began to find inspiration across his home city, particularly Brooklyn sites like the Navy Yard depicted here, as well as Prospect and Tomkins Parks.
Chase’s new subject matter of urban leisure life had so far only been pursued in European settings. “In subject,” Ronald Pisano explains, “there seems to be no direct American prototype; Chase's park scenes were considered daring and modern, since most American landscape painters focused on the bucolic countryside, far from the city limits. Surely Chase was aware of Sargent's views of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and in London; these works may account in part for Chase's choice of subject matter.” (Summer Afternoons: Landscape Paintings of William Merritt Chase, Boston, Massachusetts, 1973, p. 9) In addition, Durand-Ruel’s New York show of April 1886 featured paintings from Edouard Manet’s In the Conservatory (1878-79, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany) to a study for Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grand Jatte (1884, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois), further inspiring new ideas for his Impressionist explorations.
In Afternoon in the Park, Chase not only transports the city park scene to New York, but also imbeds a view into his personal life and style. Alice’s fashionable dress and accessories in red and pink tones stand in elegant contrast to the lush, bright green grass of the lawn. Resting her fingers on the nape of her neck, she brings attention to her delicate features, as well as her jewelry glinting in the sunlight. Her positioning also draws the eye to her pensive gaze into the distance, creating a sense of intriguing mystery and distance within the work. As Gallati writes, “Afternoon in the Park is a portrait of the artist's wife. As such he has taken her out of the domestic sphere and placed her on public display both figuratively (within the pictorial space) and literally (by exhibiting the pastel in public). His sensitivity to this level of accessibility is implicated by Alice's profile pose, which prevents eye contact with her and therefore wraps her even more firmly within the bounds of gentility.” (William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890, p. 146)
While Alice’s dress is formal, the application of pastel is daring and gestural, underscoring the vitality of the natural oasis within the city—perhaps even echoing the rhythm of the musical concert just off stage of the composition. Chase, a founding member of the Society of American Painters in Pastel, created a fluency and lyricism in his pastel works that reveal the material’s possibilities as a versatile medium. The lace ruffles of her dress, the verdant, layered green grasses, and the dappled sunlit highlights come to life through depth of texture, color and vibrancy. Her pose also creates a dynamic design of diagonals, which act as a counterpoint to the geometries of the manicured grounds beyond, as well as the shorter, lively linework of Chase’s color application.
A masterpiece in pastel, Afternoon in the Park is painterly in execution, revealing a richness and depth of tone more often seen in oil paint. While many of Chase’s park pictures focus solely on the landscape, the present work is an intimate, engrossing image that combines both great subjects of Chase’s career: the landscape and the figure. The artist’s choice of pastels, often considered a more immediate, intimate form of mark making, demonstrates that while Chase handled his pastels like a painter, he also understood that their velvety suppleness could add a compelling immersive quality to his completed pieces.
In the present work, the artist’s wife, Alice Gerson Chase, poses for the central figure who reclines elegantly in a chair on the manicured, sun-dappled lawn of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She is likely pictured attending a concert at the small bandstand near the Lyceum. While in prior years Chase had traveled abroad during the summer months, in 1886 he and Alice had married, and in 1888, she gave birth to the first of their eight children. Realizing that his resources would not readily permit the growing family to make annual summer trips to Europe, the Chases remained at home in the summers. Living in Brooklyn and later Greenwich Village, the artist began to find inspiration across his home city, particularly Brooklyn sites like the Navy Yard depicted here, as well as Prospect and Tomkins Parks.
Chase’s new subject matter of urban leisure life had so far only been pursued in European settings. “In subject,” Ronald Pisano explains, “there seems to be no direct American prototype; Chase's park scenes were considered daring and modern, since most American landscape painters focused on the bucolic countryside, far from the city limits. Surely Chase was aware of Sargent's views of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and in London; these works may account in part for Chase's choice of subject matter.” (Summer Afternoons: Landscape Paintings of William Merritt Chase, Boston, Massachusetts, 1973, p. 9) In addition, Durand-Ruel’s New York show of April 1886 featured paintings from Edouard Manet’s In the Conservatory (1878-79, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany) to a study for Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grand Jatte (1884, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois), further inspiring new ideas for his Impressionist explorations.
In Afternoon in the Park, Chase not only transports the city park scene to New York, but also imbeds a view into his personal life and style. Alice’s fashionable dress and accessories in red and pink tones stand in elegant contrast to the lush, bright green grass of the lawn. Resting her fingers on the nape of her neck, she brings attention to her delicate features, as well as her jewelry glinting in the sunlight. Her positioning also draws the eye to her pensive gaze into the distance, creating a sense of intriguing mystery and distance within the work. As Gallati writes, “Afternoon in the Park is a portrait of the artist's wife. As such he has taken her out of the domestic sphere and placed her on public display both figuratively (within the pictorial space) and literally (by exhibiting the pastel in public). His sensitivity to this level of accessibility is implicated by Alice's profile pose, which prevents eye contact with her and therefore wraps her even more firmly within the bounds of gentility.” (William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890, p. 146)
While Alice’s dress is formal, the application of pastel is daring and gestural, underscoring the vitality of the natural oasis within the city—perhaps even echoing the rhythm of the musical concert just off stage of the composition. Chase, a founding member of the Society of American Painters in Pastel, created a fluency and lyricism in his pastel works that reveal the material’s possibilities as a versatile medium. The lace ruffles of her dress, the verdant, layered green grasses, and the dappled sunlit highlights come to life through depth of texture, color and vibrancy. Her pose also creates a dynamic design of diagonals, which act as a counterpoint to the geometries of the manicured grounds beyond, as well as the shorter, lively linework of Chase’s color application.
A masterpiece in pastel, Afternoon in the Park is painterly in execution, revealing a richness and depth of tone more often seen in oil paint. While many of Chase’s park pictures focus solely on the landscape, the present work is an intimate, engrossing image that combines both great subjects of Chase’s career: the landscape and the figure. The artist’s choice of pastels, often considered a more immediate, intimate form of mark making, demonstrates that while Chase handled his pastels like a painter, he also understood that their velvety suppleness could add a compelling immersive quality to his completed pieces.