William Merritt Chase was an eclectic painter known for his portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. He worked in all mediums -- oils, water colors, pastels and etching. He loved teaching and was greatly influential with young artists for 36 years. Among his pupils were Georgia O'Keeffe, Joseph Stella, and Charles Sheeler. For many years he was a fixture of the New York art scene. 

John Singer Sargent first met Chase in 1881 when the latter was on a trip for Spain but first visited Paris (probably to see the Salon) where he met Sargent and Mary Cassatt. Both Cassatt and Sargent had been to Spain previously and both gave Chase suggestions. They certainly crossed paths often being members of same organizations such as the Society of American Artists and most certainly exhibited at some of the same shows. Sargent painted Chase in 1902. But the most interesting connection was when Mrs Isabella Stewart Gardner used Chases' 10th Street Studio in New York to host a party in which Sargent hired the Spanish gypsy dancer Carmencita to perform. 

Chase trained at the National Academy of Design (1869-71) in New York and at Munich's Royal Academy of Art (1872-77) where he adopted the techniques and style of that school -- characterized by rich and direct brushwork and a dark palette which had its roots to artists as Frans Hals (1580/6-1666) and Diego Velasquez (1599-1660).  

Much of his early work is of this style and he was so taken by Velasquez that he named a fifth daughter Helen Velasquez, even painting her as an infant along with his wife in different paintings in homage to the Spanish master's court pictures. He wrote from the Prado in Madrid to one of his students in New York: 

The Old Gallery of pictures is simply magnificent. [Velazquez] is the greatest painter that ever lived. How you would enjoy the pictures by him here. I am sure you would be inspired and encouraged; [Velazquez] is not like many of the great painters; he never discourages one -- but on the contrary -- makes you feel that everything is possible for one to accomplish. [1]

From the time he returned to America after studying in Munich in 1878 he taught continually until his death on Oct. 25, 1916. In New York city he established a school of his own, after having taught for some years at the Art Students league. Some of his most important works came out of his teaching in plein air at his beautiful summer house at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, designed by Mckim, Mead and White (At the Seaside c.1892). 

Case was born at Franklin, Ind. on Nov. 1, 1849. From his output of more than 2000 paintings he won many honors at home and abroad. He became a member of the National Academy of Design, New York (1890) and for ten years was president of the Society of American Artists. During his last decade he had numerous one-man shows in many major U.S.  cities. In 1912 he was awarded the proctor prize by the National Academy of Design for his "Portrait of Mrs. H." (n/a). At the Panama Pacific exposition (1915) a specific room was assigned to his works. Among his most important canvases are "Ready for the Ride (n/a)", "The Apprentice" (n/a), "Court Jester" (n/a), and portraits of his friends and painters -- Whistler (1885; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City) (n/a), and Duveneck (n/a) and more than a hundred still lifes of dead fish. 
 
 
 

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Notes: 
 

• See the year in review 1902
• Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 5, William Benton, 1962, P.312
• M. Elizabeth Boone book; Espana, American Artists and the Spanish Experience, (Hollis Taggart Galleries) Nov 98, p. 56
• Wadsworth Atheneum
• The image is from ebay, I'm looking for a larger and better image.

Footnote 1 

Letter from William Merritt Chase to Dora Wheeler, Madrid, 24, July 1881, Archives, Cincinnati Art Museum, gift of Miss Cadance Stimson; quoted in M. Elizabeth Boone book; Espana, American Artists and the Spanish Experience, (Hollis Taggart Galleries) Nov 98, p. 56.

• Tour: American Impressionists of the Late 1800s and Early 1900s