William Merritt Chase
If you're looking for artsy paper calendars for 2020 we have something for you—DailyArt calendars! Check them out here! : )
William Merritt Chase was one of the leading exponents of American Impressionism. He captured the genteel, privileged life of polite society in the 1890s. A Friendly Call, set in Chase's elegant summer house at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, shows two fashionably dressed women in a large, airy room decorated with prints, paintings, hanging textiles, and a large, gilt-framed mirror. The artist's wife Alice, on the right, listens attentively to her visitor, who is still wearing her hat and gloves and carrying a parasol.
The mirror framing Mrs. Chase offers a surprising reflection of a wall behind the viewer; Chase's compositional arrangement and his use of reflected imagery suggest that he may have been paying homage to the 17th-century Spanish artist Velázquez, whose much-admired painting Las Meninas displays a similarly inventive studio interior.
Have a great Friday! Are you getting ready for New Year's Eve? : )
P.S. Have a sneak peek at William Merritt Chase's studio in Greenwich Village, New York. <3