William Merritt Chase and the French connection

Magazine Antiques, July, 2000 by Barbara Dayer Gallati

Given James Sutton's position as the proprietor of the American Art Galleries, which was established to advance contemporary American art, and the fact that he was promoting French impressionism in 1886, it seems reasonable that he would sponsor Chase, who was essentially the only American-based artist of considerable repute who was experimenting with the styles and subject matter of the French avant-garde at the time. Boston becomes a logical site for the Chase exhibition, for Bostonians would probably have been less aware of the dismal reviews Chase's art had received in New York City throughout the early 1880s and therefore more likely to welcome the chance to see the works of the famous New Yorker. Moreover, an exhibition of eighteen French impressionist works in Boston in 1883 had primed Bostonians for an Americanized version of impressionism. [22] Chase's Boston show was more or less a proving ground for a slightly modified pre-auction exhibition of the same works in New York City on March 2 and 3, 188 7, at Moore's Art Galleries, an establishment financed in part by Sutton. The Boston reviews had been favorable and the critics were pleased by the exhibition at Moore's, although sales were moderate in an admittedly slow season.

In the fall of 1887 Sutton's American Art Galleries displayed five of Chase's landscapes in the new manner, including the one shown in Plate XIV. Four of the artist's paintings, including The Church of the Puritans (P1. XVII), were exhibited in December 1887 at the inaugural exhibition of the Society for Promotion of Art at the Eden Mus[acute{e}]e, an entertainment hall on East Twenty-third Street. [23] The favorable reviews of Chase's park paintings in these two exhibitions mark the turning point in his standing with the critics. As one observed:

William M. Chase has abandoned the palette knife [referring to his Munich style] and returned to his brushes, leaving his friend Twachtman to ramble over canvas with sticks and shoehorns [a reference to John H. Twachtman's Munich training]. Mr. Chases's Brooklyn subjects have actual charm of light and color, and Paris has not afforded a better subject than the Church of the Puritans as he is able to see it from the park beside it. [24]

Without Sutton's enthusiastic marketing of French impressionism and the popularity of the 1886 Durand-Ruel exhibition, it is possible that Chase might never have arrived at the aesthetic formula that redeemed his reputation. By extension, their mutual interest in contemporary French art probably encouraged Sutton's support of Chase in ways that changed the course of the artist's career.

I am grateful to Linda S. Ferber, Sarah Elizabeth Kelly, and Bruce Weber for their invaluable assistance during my research.

A traveling exhibition entitled William Merritt Chase: Modem American Landscapes, 1886-1890 is on view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art until August 13. It will then be seen at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 7 to November 26, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from December 13 to March 11, 2001. The exhibition is organized by Barbara Dayer Gallati, who wrote the accompanying book of the same title.