 Born in Indiana in 1849, William Merritt Chase received his training in painting in New York and Munich. His long and distinguished career as an instructor began when he accepted a teaching position at the Art Students League in New York City in 1878. Among his notable positions was head of Long Island's Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, the first open-air school of painting in America.
In 1896, he established his own school, in New York City. Here, at the Chase School (later to become Parsons The New School for Design), he had free reign to propagate his theories of art and implement his approaches to teaching.
Most notably, he had students draw from life models rather than from sculptures depicting the human form, as had been the practice at the Art Students League. Active as a teacher at the school until 1907, Chase was an influential mentor to such notable painters as Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, and Guy Pène Du Bois.
Chase's own artwork earned him great renown. He was among the first American Impressionist painters to depict life in this country, merging European aesthetics with images of America. His landscapes of city parks, portraits of social figures of the Gilded Age, and still lifes of food and table settings were particularly admired.
For his paintings, he received numerous awards and honors, including a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. His achievements were so well known that, in 1915, the Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco devoted a gallery solely to his paintings. His fame continued even after his death the following year. A 1949 issue of Life magazine dubbed him the "ruler of the art world" in his era. More than twelve books have been written about Chase, and countless exhibitions have featured his work. On the market, Chase's paintings command astronomical prices--The Nursery, for example, was purchased in 2001 by computer mogul Bill Gates for $10 million.
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