Still Life: Fish
by 1908
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
40 1/8 x 45 1/16 in. (101.9 x 114.5 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
George A. Hearn Fund, 1908
Accession Number
08.139.2
Tags
About this artwork
This still life presents an arrangement of fresh fish displayed with the painterly immediacy and tonal sophistication characteristic of Chase's mature work. The composition demonstrates the artist's ability to transform humble subject matter into compelling visual studies of form, texture, and color. Chase renders the fish with attention to their silvery surfaces, varied textures, and the play of light across wet scales and flesh, creating a study in both observation and painterly technique. The...
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