Seventeenth Century Lady
ca. 1895
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
36 1/2 x 23 3/4in. (92.7 x 60.3cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
George A. Hearn Fund, 1906
Accession Number
06.1220
Tags
About this artwork
This enigmatic painting presents a woman dressed in contemporary 1890s attire, viewed from behind in a darkened interior pierced by a sliver of light suggesting a slightly opened door. William Merritt Chase, one of America's leading painters and teachers, created this work around 1895 during the height of his career. Despite the title 'Seventeenth Century Lady,' the subject wears modern clothing, revealing Chase's playful approach to tradition and convention. The artist demonstrates his mastery ...
Art Historical Context
William Merritt Chase's *Seventeenth Century Lady*ca. 1895), an oil on canvas measuring 36½ × 23¾ inches, captures a woman in 1890s attire viewed from behind in a shadowy interior. A sliver of light from a slightly opened door pierces the darkness, illuminating her luminous white gown. Despite the evoking 17th-century elegance, the modern clothing highlights Chase's whimsical challenge to artistic conventions, created at the peak of his career as one of America's foremost painters and teachers. Chase's bravura technique shines in his masterful tonal painting, with subtle gradations and expres...
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