Sunset Glow

William Merritt Chase, artist

1849–1916

Sunset Glow, circa 1890–1895

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: oil; panel

Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 40.6 x 36.9 cm (width at top)
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 16 x 14 1/2 in
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 40.6 x 37.1 cm (width dimension at bottom)
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 16 x 14 5/8 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Slawson and Charles Offin Art Fund

Accession number: 1974.0137

Not on display

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Label texts

Chase spent his summers from 1891 to 1902 on Southampton, Long Island, teaching open-air painting to students at Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art. In Sunset Glow, Chase explores the effects of light and shadow on the fields and sand dunes along the coast of Shinnecock Hills, punctuating his landscape with a daub of red paint in the middle ground; this detail alludes to his daughter donning her red bonnet.

Exhibition Label:
"This Land," Mar-2014, Kate Meyer
Chase spent his summers from 1891 to 1902 on Southampton, Long Island, teaching open-air painting to students at Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art. In Sunset Glow, Chase explores the effects of light and shadow on the fields and sand dunes along the coast of Shinnecock Hills, punctuating his landscape with a daub of red paint in the middle ground; this detail alludes to his daughter donning her red bonnet.

Archive Label 1999:
From 1891 to 1902 William Merritt Chase spent his summers at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, teaching art students the principles of open or plein-air painting. The varied landscape overlooking the Peconic Bay lent itself to Chase's characteristic bold and loose brushwork as well as to his interest in catching the changing effects of light and shadow.

Chase achieves the mellow and airy sensation of a warm afternoon through his use of muted colors on a wood panel. The thin application of paint in the prominent foreground allows the reddish wood tint and the sketchy pencil marks to show through. The bright color accents that appears in the middle ground indicates the presence of his oldest daughter donning a bonnet. This little "red note," as Chase himself calls it, is a recurring element in his landscapes of this period.