Wind-Swept Sands
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
87 × 101.5 cm (34 1/4 × 39 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
120296
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Between 1891 and 1902, William Merritt Chase painted numerous landscapes of the area surrounding the Shinnecock Summer Art School in Long Island, New York, where he was an influential teacher. In Wind-Swept Sands, Chase used rapid brushstrokes to depict the dunes and vegetation, thin washes for the sky, and an overall gray tone to indicate an overcast day. Chase’s teaching method was rooted in the French Impressionist practice of painting outdoors in order to take advantage of natural light and ...
About the Artist
William Merritt Chase · 1849–1916
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