Portrait of William Merritt Chase
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number
66.1486
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, to 1959
Art Historical Context
Thomas Eakins painted portrait of fellow artist William Chase around 189, capturing one of the leading figures in late nineteenth-century American art. Eakins, a Philadelphia native renowned for his unflinching realism, often turned his attention to fellow painters and intellectuals, using portraiture to explore character and professional identity. The work now resides in the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, a gift that places it among the nation’s premier holdings of modern American art. Eakins approached portraiture with scientific precision and psychological insight, fa...