A City Park
c. 1887
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
34.6 × 49.9 cm (13 5/8 × 19 5/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
28849
Art Historical Context
William Merritt Chase’s * City Park* (c 1887) captures a tranquil urban oasis with the loose brushwork and luminous color typical of American Impressionism. As one of the leading figures who introduced European Impressionist ideas to the United States, Chase often turned his attention to public parks in New York, where newly created green spaces offered city dwellers a respite from rapid industrialization. The modest scale of this oil-on-canvas work—roughly 14 by 20 inches—invites an intimate viewing experience, allowing the play of light across paths, foliage, and figures to unfold quietly. ...
About the Artist
William Merritt Chase
Prolific painter of portraits, interiors, still lifes and landscapes, famed for establishing the fresh colour and bravura technique used in much early 20th-century American painting. He was considered the most important American teacher of his time; after teaching at the Art Students League of NY he formed the Chase School of Art in 1896. Comment on works: genre, Portraits