William Merritt Chase
Sunlight and Shadow, Shinnecock Hills

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Sunlight and Shadow, Shinnecock Hills
Datec. 1895
PlaceLong Island, New York, United States
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 35 3/4 × 41 in. (90.8 × 104.1 cm)
Frame (outer): 46 1/4 × 51 1/2 × 3 1/4 in. (117.5 × 130.8 × 8.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. James W. Glanville
Object number98.247
Non exposé

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Department
American Art
Object Type
Description

This luminous landscape was inspired by the rather flat and ordinary countryside of Shinnecock, Long Island, where William Merritt Chase taught outdoor painting. Chase’s deceptively simple composition testifies to his ability to make the ordinary seem extraordinary.


Originally from the Midwest, Chase studied at the National Academy of Design in New York, and then in Europe at the Munich Academy, where artists were encouraged to depict ordinary subject matter, and to handle paint broadly using a limited, dark palette enlivened with small bits of bright color. After further study and travel abroad, Chase returned to New York, where he became a highly visible art figure known for his generosity, eclecticism, and charisma, and for his Impressionist scenes of public parks and his bold portraits.


Chase’s most consistent and brilliant body of work is the series of Impressionist landscapes he painted from 1891 to 1902, during summers at Shinnecock. This imposing example provides a fresh, seemingly spontaneous interpretation of the movement of clouds and sunlight and their effects on the coastal landscape below. Sandwiched in between the scraggly clumps of dune grass, heather, and sky are pink dunes highlighted by a streak of red, and a sliver of sea dotted with white boats.


ProvenanceEx-collection: Collection of the Artist

Ex-collection: Scott and Fowles, New York

Ex-collection: W. W. Drew, Stamford, Connecticut

Ex-collection: William Macbeth Gallery, New York (on Consignment from W. W. Drew)

Ex-collection: Dudley S. Ingraham, Bristol, Connecticut

Ex-collection: Private Collection

Ex-collection: Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York

Collection: Mrs. James (Nancy Hart) Glanville Sole owner until June 23, 1998 when Mrs. Glanville donated 50% undivided ownership of the painting to the museum.
Exhibition History"Exhibition of the works of William Merritt Chase," American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, April 26–July 15, 1928.

"An Exhibition of 'Collector's Examples' of American Painting," William Macbeth Gallery, New York, October 15–29, 1934.

"The Coast and the Sea: A Survey of American Marine Painting," Brooklyn Museum of Art, November 19, 1948–January 16, 1949.

"Chase Centennial Exhibition Commemorating the Birth of William Merritt Chase, November 12, 1849," The John Herron Museum, Indianapolis, November 1–December 11, 1949.

"William Merritt Chase, 1849-1916: A Retrospective Exhibition," Parrish Art Museum, Southampton Village, New York, June 30–July 27, 1957.

"American Painting: 1865-1905," Art Gallery of Toronto, January 6–February 5, 1961; Winnipeg Art Gallery, February 17–March 12, 1961; Vancouver Art Gallery, March 29–April 23, 1961; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 17–June 18, 1961.

"The Art Colony at Old Lyme: 1900-1935," The Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut, February 5–March 13, 1966.

"The Private Eye: Selected Works from Collection of Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 7–September 4, 1989.

"American Painters in the Age of Impressionism," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 4, 1994–March 26, 1995.

"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 7, 2012–January 2, 2013.

"Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France," Denver Art Museum, November 14, 2021–March 13, 2022; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, April 16–July 31, 2022.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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