Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
PROPERTY FROM A PROMINENT PRIVATE COLLECTION, WESTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Lot 67
William Merritt Chase(1849-1916)Study for the Portrait of Mme. E. H. Bensel (Lady at the Window) 20 1/8 x 16 1/8 in. (51.1 x 41 cm.)
7 November 2023, 14:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$17,920 inc. premium
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Morgan Martin
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Mary Manfredi
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
William Merritt Chase (1849-1916)
Study for the Portrait of Mme. E. H. Bensel (Lady at the Window)
signed 'Wm. M. Chase' (lower center in another hand)
oil on canvas
20 1/8 x 16 1/8 in. (51.1 x 41 cm.)
Painted circa 1912.
signed 'Wm. M. Chase' (lower center in another hand)
oil on canvas
20 1/8 x 16 1/8 in. (51.1 x 41 cm.)
Painted circa 1912.
Footnotes
Provenance
Estate of the artist.
Alice Brémond (née Gerson) Chase (1866-1927), New York, wife of the artist, by descent from the artist, 1916.
Newhouse Galleries, St. Louis, by 1927.
California Fine Arts, by 1972.
Private collection, acquired from the above, by 1972.
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1991, lot 40.
Private collection, acquired at the above sale.
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, July 26, 2019, lot 99, sold by the above.
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale.
Exhibited
Birmingham, Michigan, Stalker & Boos, American Paintings, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, May 16-June 6, 1969, n.p., no. 20, illustrated.
Washington, D.C., Adams, Davidson Galleries, Inc., 100 Years of American Painting: 1840-1910, March 19-April 22, 1972, p. 7. (as Lady at the Window)
Miami, Mann Galleries, American Art Selections, 1973, p. 17, illustrated. (as Lady at the Window)
Literature
Newhouse Galleries, Paintings by William Merritt Chase, N.A., LL. D. , St. Louis, n.p., no. 6, illustrated. (as Lady at the Window)
W. D. Peat, Check List of Known Work by William M. Chase, Chase Centennial Exhibition, Indianapolis, 1949. (as Lady at the Window)
R. G. Pisano, C.K. Lane, D. F. Baker, William Merritt Chase: Portraits in Oil, The Complete Catalogue of Known and Documented Work by William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), New Haven, Connecticut, 2006, vol. II, p. 255, no. OP.539, illustrated.
The present work is included in Ronald G. Pisano's The Completed Catalogue of Known and Documented Work by William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) as no. OP.539. The work is accompanied by the original Art Research Report issued by Ronald G. Pisano, Inc. and signed by D. Frederick Baker, dated October 4, 2023.
D. Frederick Baker notes that the present work "Is a record of bravura brushwork with brilliantly painted objects so associated with William Merritt Chase: the bright silver service set on the left, the deft, polished, elaborate wood carving of the chair in which Mrs. Bensel is sitting. It also deftly captures the presence of an accomplished and remarkable proprietress, who ran a grand, high-class hotel where she welcomed royalty and the elite of English an American society. But most importantly, this is the only known ébouch painted by Chase. This French term was described, and an example by Theodore Robinson of Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst illustrated, in Parkhurst's treatise, "The Painter in Oil," 1898: ébouch, a preliminary study of composition and color." It was obviously a meaningful painting by Chase, who brought it back home where it remained for the rest of his life, never leaving the Chase family collection until it was acquired by Newhouse Galleries, St. Louis, Missouri c. 1927." (unpublished Art Research Report, October 4, 2023)