Artist William Merritt Chase (American, 1849 - 1916)

The Lady in White

Date1894

DimensionsSight: 71 × 34 1/2 in. (180.3 × 87.6 cm)

Object numberN0019.2023

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextThe influence of the Old Masters played a key role in Chase’s approach to portraiture. Through studying the works of Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Velázquez, he invented a genre for his own age: portraits of “new women.” Chase frequently depicted these dynamic individuals, consciously linking them to old master traditions while simultaneously promoting their novel public status. He did this in a similar manner to his contemporary, John Singer Sargent, who also expanded on the precedents set by the Old Masters. The “new women” in the late 1880s-early 1890s, were often regarded as a distinctly American phenomenon, they were eager to strike out on their own and wanted “to become something more than domestic nonentities,” as writer Gertrude Atherton explained in 1888.

Chase painted many portraits of his wife, Alice Gerson Chase, over the course of their marriage. Although Alice is the model for this work, he didn’t intend for it to be perceived as a portrait, but rather a study of a white satin dress. Having been trained at the Royal academy in Munich, he was a first-rate practitioner of bravura brushworks. In fact, he rarely did preparatory drawings or paintings for his major works – The Lady in White is a primal example of the Chase method of painting – direct application of the loaded brush to the canvas. His approach to art was unerring, and his ability to handle paint was unexcelled.
Exhibition History“Annual Exhibition,” The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Annual Philadelphia, PA, 1894, No. 61 (as Lady in White)

“Group Exhibition,” The Fine Art Society’s Art Galleries, New York, NY, 1894

“Chase Sale,” American Art Galleries, New York, NY, June 7, 1896, Lot 1180

New York, New York, National Arts Club, Paintings by William Merritt Chase, January 5–13, 1910, No.50 (lent by Edward D. Page)

“William M. Chase Memorial Exhibition,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, February 19–March 18, 1917, No.24 (lent by Edward D. Page)

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1970s

Pennsylvania Peale House, Philadelphia, PA, 1970s

Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, Loan
ProvenanceThe artist
Edward D. Page, New York
By decent to his daughter Phyllis Page McCorkle, Stone Ridge, New York
By descent to his son Henry Leftwich McCorkle, Brunswick, Maine
By descent to his wife Joanna Dickson McCorkle, 2000
Adelson Gallery, New York
Private Collection

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