Alice
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
171.8 × 125.4 cm (67 5/8 × 49 3/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
663
Art Historical Context
William Merritt Chase’s *Alice* (1892) captures the refined elegance of late nineteenth-century American portraiture. A leading figure in the American Impressionist movement, Chase was celebrated for his luminous brushwork and ability to convey both personality and atmosphere. Painted in oil on canvas at an imposing scale, the work reflects the artist’s training in Europe and his embrace of plein-air techniques adapted to the studio, where light and color play across fabrics and skin with remarkable vitality. The painting’s generous dimensions—nearly six feet in height—suggest a full-length o...
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