Major Retrospective of William Merritt Chase

http://www.phillipscollection.org/events/2016-06-04-exhibition-william-merritt-chase

William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) was a brilliant observer, an innovative painter, and a leader in international art circles at the turn of the last century. Rediscover this important and overlooked master, praised for his artistic skill in both oil and pastel, as well as for the variety of his subjects: sympathetic images of women, jewel-like landscapes, views of urban parks, and scenes of children at play. The first complete examination of the artist in more than three decades, “William Merritt Chase” brings together 80 of the painter’s finest works in both oil and pastel, drawn from public and private collections across the US.

This major international traveling exhibition, co-organized by The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia (Venice), and the Terra Foundation for American Art, sheds new light on the work of one of our country’s leading American Impressionists.

This exhibition is on view as William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master at the The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, June 4 to September 11, 2016, as William Merritt Chase at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, October 9, 2016 to January 16, 2017, and Ca’ Pesaro (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia), Venice, Italy, February 10 to May 28, 2017.

William Merritt Chase: A Retrospective is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue, published by The Phillips Collection in association with Yale University Press. Essays by the exhibition’s four curators: The Phillips Collection Curator Elsa Smithgall, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings Erica E. Hirshler, Terra Foundation for American Art Curator Katherine M. Bourguignon, and independent scholar for the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia Giovanna Ginex. The catalogue also includes an essay by the prominent Americanist John Davis, executive director for Europe and global academic programs, Terra Foundation for American Art, and a foreword by D. Frederick Baker, director of the Chase Catalogue Raisonné Project.

SHOWN: William Merritt Chase, Spring Flowers (Peonies), by 1889, 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.32