The Lady in Pink (Portrait of the artist's wife)

The Lady in Pink (Portrait of the artist's wife)
The Lady in Pink (Portrait of the artist's wife)
(American, 1849-1916)

The Lady in Pink (Portrait of the artist's wife)

Date1886
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 68 1/2 x 38 3/4 in. (174 x 98.4 cm) frame: 84 × 54 1/8 × 6 1/8 in. (213.4 × 137.5 × 15.6 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory
Object number1998.50.24
Subject(s)
  • portraits
  • women
Collection
  • 19th century American
Sub-Collection(s)
  • American Impressionism
On View
On view
Label Text

Like John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler, both of whom Chase befriended in the 1880s, Chase was interested in the idea of conceiving of paintings as color harmonies. Perhaps in emulation of both artists, he chose the color pink as his ‘key’ for this full-length portrait of his wife, née Alice Gerson, the daughter of the manager of a successful lithography firm. This likeness dates from the year before their marriage and must have been painted by the artist as a personal record of his fiancée’s youthful beauty (she was seventeen years his junior).

The schematic nature of the brushwork, which suggests as much as it describes, echoes the technique of Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, whose art Chase knew and admired. His model’s body, swathed in a diaphanous morning robe, is still credibly palpable, despite the extremely limited range of tonal contrast available to him in this medley of pink tones. The elegance of Chase’s technique made him a popular choice of portraitist for fashionable women. This example of his aptitude as a flattering portraitist must have been prominently displayed in his Tenth Street Manhattan studio to attract high society clients.


Dorothy in Pink
William Merritt CHASE
ca. 1910
Lydia Field Emmet
William Merritt CHASE
1900
Children on the Beach
William Merritt CHASE
1894
Self Portrait
Mary GRACE
c. 1760s
The Black Cap
William ORPEN
1928
Portrait of a Child in Fancy Costume
William Morris HUNT
ca. 1854
Roses, Zinnias and Pinks
Victoria Dubourg FANTIN-LATOUR
ca. 1880
Lake by Moonlight
Ralph Albert BLAKELOCK
n.d.
Lady with Parasol
Clarence HINKLE
ca. 1922
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