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Provenance: Academy of St. Joseph, Brentwood, New York (gift from the artist)
Spanierman Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1988
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Exhibited: New York, Spanierman Gallery, William Merritt Chase: Master of American Impressionism, November 1994-January 1995
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Notes: According to Ronald G. Pisano, "The summer of 1890 William Merritt Chase visited Southampton, Long Island at the invitation of Beatrice Hoyt, an amateur painter and summer resident. Mrs. Hoyt hoped to lure Chase to Long Island's East End by offering to provide him with land for a summer home and for a summer school, as well as financial support for the school's operations. Her plan succeeded, and the following year Chase established the Shinnecock Summer School of Art in the dunes of the Shinnecock Hills, just west of the village of Southampton. The barren land, bordering on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, was considered worthless by local farmers and other residents. Its vast and nearly desolate terrain had been burned to the ground several times by fires that were set off by sparks from the Long Island Railroad trains that traveled across it. When Chase settled there, in a house completed in 1892, the surface of the dunes was carpeted with lichen, sweet ferns, and an occasional bayberry bush. From his home, built on a small rise of land, Chase and his family had an unencumbered view of the Atlantic Ocean on the south side and Peconic Bay to the north. A contemporary account described the site as being 'decorative rather than intimate' (Katherine Metcalf Roof, The Life and Art of William Merritt Chase, New York, 1917, p. 176).
"Local residents considered Chase and other 'city folk' building summer homes in the area as being 'clean daft' (J. Walker McSpadden, Famous Painters of America, New York, p. 340). However, Chase the artist had a very different viewpoint, one which he successfully conveyed in his paintings of Shinnecock Hills, paintings now considered by many to be among his finest and most beautiful compositions.
"When these paintings were exhibited in New York and other major cities across the nation they were highly praised for their 'glorious atmospheric effects' and Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, was celebrated as one of the most 'artistic' settings in the country. One writer even went as far as declaring: 'Not only are the hills the most delightful places in the world, but... no greater profusion of material can be found anywhere to delight the eye of an artist' (Rosina H. Emmet, "The Shinnecock Hills Art School," The Art Interchange, October 1893, p. 89). Chase had convinced the art world of the beauty that could be found in the area, but the 'constant sketching' of infertile dunes continued to baffle long time residents whose set minds could not be changed by Chase's lovely paintings' (John Gilmer Speed, "An Artist's Summer Vacation," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1983, p. 8).
"A contemporary art critic explained this paradox: 'To the usual observer it is nothing but sand dunes, wire grass, and scrub brushes, rolling monotonously to the water's edge. But the trained eye will see infinite variety in the lights and shadows of the landscape bordered by the fickle and ever-changing sky' (McSpadden, Famous Painters of America, p. 340). Chase himself instructed his students: 'Subject is not important. Anything can be made attractive... Aim to make an uninteresting subject so inviting and entertaining by means of fine technique that people will be charmed at the way you have done it' (Frances Lauderbach, "Notes from Talks by William M. Chase: Summer Class, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California," The American Magazine of Art, September 1917, pp. 433, 436). His approach to painting was fresh, vital, and spirited, and his bold plein air paintings of Shinnecock Hills, filled with bright light and clarity, reflect this approach.
"Shinnecock Landscape, painted in the mid 1890's, is a superb example of Chase's dynamic approach to plein air painting. Painted directly on the spot in a relatively short time it conveys a fleeting moment. The effect of this immediacy is especially appealing. It is a candid view, as if the artist had taken a snapshot of the scene but it is more than that; it is an artistic composition enlivened by Chase's richly applied rapid brushwork. Chase, whose technical facility was unrivaled, explained: 'the aim of every great artist, so far as technique goes, is to as great an extent as possible to do away with the intermission between his head and his hand' (William M. Chase, "Painting," The American Magazine of Art, December 1916, p. 50). And this is just what he has successfully accomplished in Shinnecock Landscape. By the time he began painting at Shinnecock Hills, Chase's skills were so highly developed he barely had to think about the specifics of a subject--the technique came naturally; he was more concerned with aesthetics. This facility came after preliminary studies with a local artist in Indianapolis and classes at the National Academy of Design in New York, after which Chase spent six additional years studying painting at the Royal Academy in Munich, a total of approximately twelve years of training, completed in 1878.
"Both the natural ease with which Chase painted Shinnecock Landscape, as well as his refined aesthetic judgment, combine to make this work delightful and appealing. The very speed of his brush as it races across the canvas promotes a sense of vitality and excitement, a vitality that is enhanced by the sketchy nature of the work itself in which the ground of the canvas shows through in several areas. The immediacy of the moment is heightened by the swiftly moving clouds, which will soon be out of the picture plane, and the transitory effects of light and shadow cast upon the land. So truthfully is this conveyed by Chase's brush, that you can trace the source of light reflected on the horizon to a specific place in the sky above it. However, none of this is premeditated or studied. Stressing the importance of capturing such effects in a seemingly effortless manner, Chase declared: 'The harshest criticism--the very harshest--is when you hear it said 'What a lot of time it took him to do that!' The successful work is not of that kind-- it looks as if it had been blown upon the canvas and entirely without effort' (William M. Chase, "Talk Presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," January 15, 1916). Chase has achieved that goal in Shinnecock Landscape.
"One of the keys to Chase's success in landscape painting, and more specifically that of Shinnecock Landscape, is his concern for and treatment of foreground space. This subject arises constantly in his advice he gave to his students. He told his pupils to start with the foreground and develop the rest of the composition from there. The foreground should be open and inviting, drawing the viewer into the composition, but must not 'drop' and become detached from the rest of the composition. He explained 'Many students make the foreground weak by too strongly accentuating the middle distance. It is better to accent the foreground' ("A School on the Sands," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 14, 1894, p. 9). However, the middle distance was not to be neglected either; it was to have interest of its own. This was accomplished by differing the treatment of the middle distance from that of the foreground. He also told his students to keep their horizons straight. All of his advice was practiced by Chase himself, as can be seen in Shinnecock Landscape. The foreground is open and inviting, broken up by accents of paint that suggest rather than define the foliage of the Shinnecock dunes. Undulating horizontal bands of beige paint are checked by swift, explosive displays of pigment applied in an upward motion. The middle ground is denser than the foreground and is dominated by these upward strokes of richly applied paint. Finally, the composition is stabilized by the horizontal strokes used in the background, which are reinforced by the strong horizon, broken only by several branches of the bayberry bush to avoid monotony. The dense treatment of the sky contrasts with the openness of the foreground; and the clouds, moving swiftly to the left of the composition, create a light airy movement. The bright white crests of these clouds are kept in check by the artist's clever use of a few strokes of white and grayish blue paint suggesting branches in the right foreground, and by a few bolder strokes in the middle distance as well as by horizontal bands of light in the sky itself and their reflections on the horizon.
"William Merritt Chase professed that when he applied the wrong stroke of color to one of his paintings it 'hurt' (Lauderbach, "Notes from Talks," p. 433). The sensitivity of such a statement can be understood when viewing his painting Shinnecock Landscape. In an amazingly spontaneous manner, he created a lyrical composition, a glistening and cheerful scene, based not merely on the subject he chose, but on his aesthetic judgment. One can feel the joy and satisfaction he surely experienced in applying each stroke of paint, harmoniously composing his painting. The few slight dashes of yellow at the base of the bayberry bush, used as accents, were applied purely for aesthetic reasons, by an artist who considered himself a realist painter, but who truly adhered to the dictum of 'art for art's sake.' One can imagine the pleasure he got out of painting this work, in which his confidence and self-satisfaction can be seen, and shared in every stroke of paint. Shinnecock Hills, as seen through the eyes of the artist, was a truly splendid place, a barren wasteland transformed by the painter's brush into a glorious tapestry--a work of art."
This painting will be included in Ronald G. Pisano's catalogue raisonné of works by William Merritt Chase.
