{"data":{"id":28849,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/28849","is_boosted":true,"title":"A City Park","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBwAFAPUAAEdhPFZmP0ZbQkplQm14U3R8X2eAWXaGVXGTXYyrQJGvVpi0XoieZ4+OdpKReKSVeLGnZretd6CqjKCmlMC3j8+3kc65l866lse6mdS9kdq9k9S8mtG+otO\/pc3AoNXCptnY1NrY1d\/d2gAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAHAAUAAAYhQIBBIgqBJoIBwdEoBBiIw8ODoSgWkQ2n80lANJmK5RIEADs=","width":8555,"height":5932,"alt_text":"Small painting of woman in pink and black sitting on park bench."},"main_reference_number":"1968.88","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1887,"date_end":1887,"date_display":"c. 1887","date_qualifier_title":"c.","date_qualifier_id":60,"artist_display":"William Merritt Chase (American, 1849\u20131916)","place_of_origin":"New York City","description":"<p>In the late 1880s, William Merritt Chase painted a series of works focused on the public parks of Brooklyn and Manhattan, including <em>A City Park<\/em>. Amid rapid growth in New York and other US cities, such green spaces offered respite as well as novel venues for social activity. Inspired by the works of French Impressionism, Chase experimented with dramatic spatial effects, open brushwork, and a high-keyed palette. The composition\u2019s small scale suggests that the artist painted the canvas outdoors, opting for portable materials to work on-site in an urban setting.<\/p>\n","short_description":"William Merritt Chase was one of the most influential painters at the turn of the 20th century. In this painting, which probably depicts Brooklyn\u2019s Tompkins Park, half the canvas is filled by the wide, empty walkway. Its strong diagonal borders carry the eye into the scene. This informal piece, capturing the sparkle of a summer day, affirms the fresh perspective Chase brought to painting scenes like this one.","dimensions":"34.6 \u00d7 49.9 cm (13 5\/8 \u00d7 19 5\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":49,"height":34,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":"Signed, lower right: \"Wm M. Chase.\"","credit_line":"Bequest of Dr. John J. Ireland","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"M.G. Van Rensselaer, \u201cWilliam Merritt Chase,\u201d American Art Review 2 (1881), 91\u201398.\n\nMontezuma, \u201cMy Notebook,\u201d Art Amateur 18, 2 (Jan. 1888), 28.\n\nKeon Cox, \u201cWilliam M. Chase, Painter,\u201d Harper\u2019s New Monthly Magazine, 78, 466 (Mar. 1889), 549\u201357.\n\n\u201cMr. Chase\u2019s Pictures,\u201d Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15, 1889.\n\nCharles DeKay, \u201cMr. Chase and Central Park,\u201d Harper\u2019s Weekly 35, 17 (May 2, 1891), 327\u201328.\n\n\u201cThe Slaughter of Mr. Chase\u2019s Pictures,\u201d Art Amateur 24, 5 (Apr. 1891), 115\u201316.\n\nA.E. Ives, \u201cSuburban Sketching Grounds,\u201d Art Amateur 25, 4 (Sept. 1891), 80\u201382. \n\nJames William Pattison, \u201cAn Art Lover\u2019s Collection,\u201d Fine Arts Journal 28 (Feb. 1913), 99\u2013111.\n\nKatharine Metcalf Roof. The Life and Art of William Merritt Chase (Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1917).\n\nAbraham David Milgrome, The Art of William Merritt Chase (Ph.D. Diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1969).\n\nRonald G. Pisano, William Merritt Chase (Watson\u2013Guptill Publications, 1969).\n\nKeith L. Bryant, Jr., William Merritt Chase: A Genteel Bohemian (University of Missouri Press, 1991).\n\nDavid Schuyler and Jane Turner Censer, eds., The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted: The Years of Olmsted, Vaux and Company 1865\u20131874 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), vol. 6.\n\nRonald G. Pisano, Summer Afternoons: Landscape Paintings of William Merritt Chase (Little, Brown, and Company, 1993).\n\nWilliam H. Gerdts, Impressionist New York (Abbeville Press, 1994).\n\nBarbara Weinberg et al., American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885\u20131915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994).\n\nBarbara Dayer Gallati, William Merritt Chase (Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1995).\n\nJudith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 250\u201352, no. 121.\n\nStanley Meisler, Smithsonian Magazine (Feb. 2001).\n\nJudith A. Barter, et al., <em>The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 2011), cat. 76.\n\nPaintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection, (Art Institute of Chicago, 2017) 60.","exhibition_history":"Rochester Art Club, <em>Ninth Annual Exhibition of the Rochester Art Club<\/em>, May 22\u2013June 2, 1888, cat. 10, as <em>A City Park<\/em>, lent by William Merritt Chase.\n\nParis, <em>Exposition Universelle<\/em>, May 5\u2013Oct. 31, 1889, cat. 49, as <em>Un Parc de Ville<\/em>, lent by William Merritt Chase.\n\nNew York, Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, <em>Auction of Paintings by William Merritt Chase<\/em>, Mar. 6, 1891, cat. 31, as <em>A City Park<\/em>.\n\nSouthampton, NY, Parish Art Museum, <em>William Merritt Chase in the Company of Friends<\/em>, May 13\u2013June 24, 1979, cat. 8, as <em>A City Park<\/em>.\n\nSeattle, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, <em>William Merritt Chase Retrospective<\/em>, Oct. 2, 1983\u2013Jan. 29, 1984; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mar. 9\u2013June 3, 1984, no cat.\n\nNorfolk, VA, Chrysler Museum of Art, <em>Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition<\/em>, Sept. 29\u2013Dec. 17, 1989; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Feb. 1\u2013Apr. 15, 1990, Memphis, Brooks Museum of Art, May 6\u2013July 15, 1990, New York Historical Society, Sept. 5\u2013Nov. 15, 1990, cat. 49.\n\nBrooklyn Museum of Art, <em>William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886\u20131890<\/em>, May 26\u2013Aug. 13, 2000; the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 7\u2013Nov. 26, 2000; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Dec. 13, 2000\u2013Mar. 11, 2001, cat. 1.\n\nPhiladelphia, PA, Academy of the Fine Arts, <em>The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887\u20131920<\/em>, Feb. 12\u2013May 24, 2015; Norfolk, Chrysler Museum, June 16\u2013Sept. 6, 2015; Winston\u2013Salem, MA, Reynolda House, Oct. 1, 2015\u2013Jan. 3, 2016 (Philadelphia and Norfolk only), cat. 35.\n\nWashington, DC, The Phillips Collection, <em>William Merritt Chase, A Modern Master<\/em>, June 4\u2013Sept. 11, 2016, cat. 32; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Oct. 9, 2016\u2013Jan. 16, 2017; Venice, Ca' Pesaro\u2013Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna, Feb. 11\u2013May 28, 2017 (Washington, DC and Boston only).","provenance_text":"William Merritt Chase, New York, from 1887 to 1891; Renaissance Gallery, Philadelphia, by 1950; Graham Gallery, New York City, 1950; Dr. John Jay Ireland, Chicago, 1956; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1968.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":21,"fiscal_year":1968,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":43.4204,"color":{"h":39,"l":62,"s":47,"percentage":0.017265473927103137,"population":85},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 161","gallery_id":2147477236,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of the Americas","department_id":"PC-3","artist_id":41673,"artist_title":"William Merritt Chase","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[41673],"artist_titles":["William Merritt Chase"],"category_ids":["PC-3"],"category_titles":["Arts of the Americas"],"term_titles":["painting","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","Impressionism","cityscapes","organic material","american arts","painting (image making)","women","weather\/seasons","leisure","landscapes","urban life"],"style_id":"TM-7543","style_title":"Impressionism","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-7543"],"style_titles":["Impressionism"],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-2191"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-2191"],"classification_titles":["painting","american arts"],"subject_id":"TM-8762","alt_subject_ids":["TM-8735","TM-10095","TM-10094","TM-8657","TM-10126"],"subject_ids":["TM-8762","TM-8735","TM-10095","TM-10094","TM-8657","TM-10126"],"subject_titles":["cityscapes","women","weather\/seasons","leisure","landscapes","urban life"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-2601"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-2601"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","organic material"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"72a76270-d6f4-e744-d47b-307873a8e8ff","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"A City Park","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1968.88"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["A City Park"],"weight":17876,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-08-17T11:21:34-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-17T14:24:25-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:51:16-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}