William Merritt Chase (1849 – 1916) was born in Indiana and later moved to New York City to study at the National Academy of Design. He is celebrated today as both a successful American artist and teacher.

Chase spent a good deal of time studying in Europe after leaving school, and did not return to America until the late 1870s. Upon his return he experienced a period of growth and development and was met with great success. Americans took to his Impressionistic style of painting- many of his compositions featured regular people in the midst of everyday life, similar to the popular movement in France. Additionally during this time he took up teaching and encouraged his students to paint en plein air, or directly from nature, again similar to the French Impressionists.

Chase would eventually open his own school in 1896, called the Chase School, with a group of students in hopes of encouraging a freer, more expressionistic style of art in the traditional, turn of the century Victorian era. Today the Chase school is known as Parsons The New School for Design and regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious schools for art and design.

Chase’s work is currently exhibited in many important museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Brooklyn Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; among others.