01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, William Merritt Chase's Girl in Yellow, with Footnotes #179

William Merritt Chase, (1849-1916)

A Girl in Yellow (The Yellow Gown), c. 1900

Pastel on paper laid down on canvas

20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm.)

Private collection

Executed in rich, velvety pastel, A Girl in Yellow (The Yellow Gown) exemplifies the artist’s ability to move “beyond creating mere realistic likenesses to capture his subjects’ vitality, character, and spirit.” L.B. Fiser, William Merritt Chase.  With a casual pose full of personality, including a defiant tilt of the chin and daring eye contact, Chase celebrates the individuality of his sitter as she poses in an eye-catching yellow gown amidst warm, sumptuous surroundings.

Erica E. Hirshler writes, “Chase repeatedly promoted this distinctly modern American woman. His female subjects are ready for the ride, ready for a walk, ready now, and about to come in; they peruse in the studio, stroll in the park; they meet and match the viewer’s gaze…With a cloak of tradition, Chase vested his new women with power, reinforcing their vivid engagement with the world.”  More on this painting

William Merritt Chase, (born Nov. 1, 1849, Williamsburg [now Nineveh], Ind., U.S.—died Oct. 25, 1916, New York, N.Y.) painter and teacher, who helped establish the fresh colour and bravura technique of much early 20th-century American painting. Chase studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City and under Karl von Piloty for six years in Munich. He worked for a time in the grays and browns of the Munich school, but in the 1880s he took up a lighter palette, which was then popular in Paris.

An extremely effective teacher, Chase taught many pupils, first at the Art Students League of New York and then at his own school in New York City. He is best known for his portraits and figure studies, his still lifes. His mature style is notable for its bold and spontaneous brushwork and other marks of virtuoso execution. More William Merritt Chase

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