Chase, William Merrit

Chase is among the best-known American Impressionists. His artistic instruction began in Indianapolis and New York, and he studied abroad in Munich, enrolling in the Royal Academy in 1872. Encounters with Impressionism in Germany and France led Chase to experiment with modern techniques and subjects. Back in the United States he became known for his sunlit paintings of sophisticated New Yorkers enjoying the urban beauty of Central Park and Prospect Park. In 1902, Chase became a member of Ten American Painters, an Impressionist exhibiting group that split from the conservative Society of American Artists, just as the French Impressionists had from the Salon of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. An influential instructor in New York and Philadelphia, Chase taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1896 to 1909.