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American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
|
- Sale 6384
Live
| Philadelphia
Dec 7 | 1:00 PM EST
Live
| Philadelphia
Sale 6384
| Philadelphia
| Philadelphia
Estimate$25,000 – $40,000
Provenance:
The Artist.
The Gribbel Family, Pennsylvania, commissioned from the above.
By descent in the family to the present owner, Pennsylvania.
Literature:
New York Times, Dec. 16, 1906, X4, illustrated.
William Howe Downes, "William Merritt Chase, A Typical American Artist," International Studio 39, no. 154 (December 1909): 32, illustrated.
James W. Pattison, "William Merritt Chase, N.A.," House Beautiful 25, no. 3 (February 1909): 51, illustrated.
Wilber Peat, "Checklist of Known Work by William M. Chase," Chase Centennial Exhibition, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1949.
Ronald G. Pisano, William Merritt Chase: Portraits in Oil, Vol. II, New Haven, 2006,
OP.495, p. 236, illustrated (dated to c. 1906).
Lot Note:
By the time the present painting was executed in 1905, Chase had long established himself as one of America's leading portraitists. His depictions of women–including those of high society, female students, as well as of his wife, Alice, and daughters, Dorothy and Koto–are particularly notable within this genre. He commanded upwards of $2,000 for his depictions of fashionable ladies–an impressive sum of money at the turn of the century. As Erica Hirshler notes, Chase "made a name by picturing women [captured] in a variety of roles, both active and meditative, in public and at home, and in professional and domestic guises."
Chase's double figure portraits are rarer than his single figure portraits and the present painting is particularly noteworthy for its candor mixed with a lack of formality and tenderness. The two sisters depicted here wear matching outfits, the younger sister leaning into the right shoulder of her elder sister, with each looking directly at the viewer, with a single rose stylishly placed to the right of the elder sister near the foreground. As William Howe Downes points out in discussing this painting, "The easy girlish poses are not too formally disposed, and the interlocked fingers of all the hands provide a pleasant hint of the reality of the relationship thus candidly proclaimed."
Framed: 56 1/4 x 46 1/4 in.
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Adam Veil
VP, Head of Department, American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
