William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase was a portrait painter at the forefront of fashion, catering to upper-class tastes in New York. Despite his well-known bohemianism, Chase exemplified a conservative style. When painting portraits, Chase often employed the dark palette he learned at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany. When painting landscapes, however, Chase called upon the bright and colorful impressionist style pioneered earlier by Claude Monet and other French artists, moving between techniques at will.