Friday Favorites


William Merritt Chase 1849 - 1916

William Merritt Chase was fluent in many mediums; using oil, pastel, watercolor, and printmaking methods.  He was especially fluent in oil and pastel.  I have been enjoying reading about this American Impressionist in a beautiful book that includes his many pastel paintings, written by Ronald G. Pisano.                
                        

A native of Indiana, his family later moved to St. Louis, where he became active in the St. Louis art community, winning prizes for his paintings at local exhibition. Chase's talent elicited the interest of wealthy St. Louis collectors who arranged for him to study in Europe.  He returned to the United states in 1878 to live in New York.  He was a highly skilled artist representing the new wave of European-educated American talent.

Meditation

pastel on canvas

20 x 16

His pastels are amazing! They are so painterly....you almost seem to see the brushstrokes!  This pastel is one of Chase's most exhibited and reproduced pastels. His wife was the model.

One of the most bizarre happenings associated with this pastel was reported in an article, New York Mail and Express 1893

"...'I never before realized,' said the artist, 'that a mental shock could cause physical pain.  But I learned it the other day when I found some vandal in Chicago had RUBBED OUT THE FACE of my pastel portrait of my wife.  The canvas is well known here, and has been frequently exhibited.  I had been offered $1,500 ($40,000 in today's dollars) but refused.  I sent the work to the (1893) Chicago World's Fair and found that someone had rubbed out the face, probably thinking it was done in oil. I don't know how it was done, but the news of it made me ill.' "

Wow! Can you imagine that happening to your artwork in a public display? No wonder he was upset!

My only question is, why would this pastel on canvas not have been protected under glass?  Was that typical in that day? If I can find more info on this incident I'll let you know.  If anyone out there would know additional information, I'd like to learn more.

Here is another beautiful work of his, once again a pastel.  Amazing!

Back of Nude

Pastel

18 x 13

In the 1890s, John Singer Sargent averaged fourteen portrait commissions per year, none more beautiful than the genteel Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892!  I still remember when I first saw this amazing work--sadly not in person but in a lovely book, 'Sargent' by Carter Ratliffe.  I was awestruck...still am!  Maybe someday I will be fortunate enough to see this lovely painting in person!

It now resides in the National Galleries of Scotland.  Andrew Noel Agnew, a barrister who had inherited the baronetcy and estates of Lochnaw in Galloway, Scotland, commissioned this painting of his young wife, Gertrude Vernon (1865-1932), in 1892.  The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, and made Sargent's name.  Portrait commissions poured in and Sargent enjoyed something of a cult following in Edwardian society.

John Singer Sargent
'Lady Agnew'
oil on canvas