Project Description
William Merritt Chase (1849-1916)
Still Life Coffee Pot, glass and earthenware bowl
Oil on canvas
24 x 30 inches
Provenance:
The artist
New York School of Art
Douglas Connah
Descended through the Connah family to the present
Note:
This painting is included in Ronald G. Pisano’s The Complete Catalogue of Known and Documented Work by William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Vol. 4, (Yale University Press, 2010). SL.178 (as Still Life), illus. p. 72. It is identified as a work completed by Chase, likely a classroom demonstration piece, in the last summer of the Shinnecock Summer School of Art, Southampton, New York. A photograph of the work (no. 594.91.RGP/PS.24) is in the Chase Archives, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York. In 1896 Chase founded the Chase School of Art, which was sold to Mr. Connah in 1898, renamed the New York School of Art. For several years Chase continued as an instructor at the New York School of Art, and where he likely stored work from his other teaching positions, including the Shinnecock Summer School of Art. The work is also included in a checklist compiled by Connah (#73) of paintings he retrieved from the school after he sold it in 1910 to Frank Parsons. It is unlikely that this painting was ever exhibited, or even seen outside the Connah family, since it was painted over a century ago.
