William Merritt Chase
Let's move to some warmer places today!
At first glance, this appears to be an informal backyard moment, but a closer look reveals a carefully staged composition that behaves more like a still life. William Merritt Chase arranges his family and belongings with deliberate precision. His young sister—wearing a large, 17th-century Dutch-style black hat, perhaps a playful nod to her name, Hattie—sits prominently in the scene. Nearby, his wife takes breakfast with their infant daughter, wearing a Chinese cap, while Chase’s sister-in-law reclines in a hammock. One of the artist’s prized Russian wolfhounds dozes along the fence.
The props are just as intentional as the figures. A Japanese screen, a potted tropical plant, the Dutch hat, and the Chinese cap all reflect Chase’s cosmopolitan taste. His Manhattan studio on Tenth Street was famous for its eclectic mix of exotic objects and costumes, many of which reappear in his paintings, adding elegance and cultivated charm to the domestic calm of this Brooklyn garden.
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