The Lone Fisherman

William Merritt Chase, American, 1849 - 1916

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about 1892

Oil on panel

Panel: 15 × 11 7/8 in. (38.1 × 30.2 cm)

Frame: 24 × 20 3/4 in. (60.9 × 52.7 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Ada and William Preston Harrison

P.940.40

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Painting

Research Area

Painting

Not on view

Inscriptions

Signed, lower left: WM [monogram] M. Chase

Label

This broadly painted, sun-filled landscape depicts William Merritt Chase’s father fishing along the canal in Shinnecock, Long Island, where Chase operated his influential summer school for art from 1891 to 1902. The artist’s primary compositional interest in the work, however, would appear to be the dramatic depth of perspective created by the low vantage point and surging diagonal of the canal wall toward a high horizon. In his bright palette and bold manipulation of space, Chase was indebted to the work of European Impressionists, who in turn frequently drew upon the compositional devices of Japanese prints.


From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art


Course History

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Jen Caine, Winter 2022

Exhibition History

America: The New World in 19th Century Painting, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria, March 17-June 20, 1999.

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-September 12, 2021.

American Viewpoints: Painting and Sculpture from the Hood Museum of Art, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, California, May 5-August 31, 2003.

Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, California, July 1-September 30, 1917.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 12, 1990-June 22, 1997.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 2, 2009-March 13, 2016.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 1, 2003-May 8, 2007.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-February 14, 1999.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1999-April 21, 2003.

Lasting Impressions, French and American Impressionism from New England Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, September 25-November 27, 1988.

The Dartmouth College Collection: 19th & 20th Century Paintings, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art , Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 17-November 6, 1982.

The New England Eye: Master American Paintings from New England School, College, & University Collections, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, September 9-November 4, 1983.

William Merritt Chase: A Retrospective, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., June 4-September 11, 2016; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, October 9, 2016-January 16, 2017; Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia, Venice, Italy, February 11-May 28, 2017.

Publication History

Stephan Koja, ed., America: The New World in 19th-Century Painting, Munich, London, New York: Prestel Verlag, 1999, p. 254, 255, ill. pl. 113.

Treasures of the Hood Museum of Art, New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1985, p. 118, no. 106.

American Viewpoints (brochure for exhibition), San Diego, California: Timken Museum of Art, May 9-August 31, 2003, 8 pp., checklist no. 12.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 65, no. 44.

Ronald Pisano, William Merritt Chase: Landscapes in Oil, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 86-87, ill. p. 87, no. L.174.

Jean C. Harris, Steven Kern, Bill Stern, Lasting Impressions, French and American Impressionism from New England Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts: Springfield Library and Museums Association for the Museum of Fine Arts, 1988, p. 48, no. 34.

S. Lane Faison, Jr., The New England Eye: Master American Paintings from New England School, College & University Collections, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Williams College of Art, 1983, plate 40.

Barbara Dayer Gallati, William Merritt Chase, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 1995, p. 80, ill.

Elsa Smithgall, Erica E. Hirshler, Katherine M. Bourguignon, Giovanna Ginex, and John Davis, Wlliam Merritt Chase: A Modern Master: Washington, DC: The Phillips Collection in association with New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016, 227 pp., color ill. p. 170, Plate 67.

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 129, ill. plate no. 60.

Provenance

The artist, New York , New York; sold to Ada Sanberg Harrison (1885-1947) and William Preston Harrison (1869-1940), Los Angeles, California, 1916; given to present collection, 1940.

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