Still Life--Striped Bass
Framed: 40 3/4 x 48 x 4 5/8 inches (103.51 x 121.92 x 11.76 cm)
- 217
Annual Exhibition of the Ten, Montross Gallery, New York, March 19–April 6, 1907, no. 5 (as Fish Still Life).
Twenty-third Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, October 18–November 27, 1910, no. 43.
Third Annual Exhibition: Oil Paintings by Contemporary American Artists, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., December 13, 1910–January 22, 1911, no. 74.
The 106th Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, February 5–March 26, 1911, no. 560.
Exhibition of Pictures by Ten American Painters, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., February 6–27, 1919, no. 7.
Winfield Public Schools, Kans., November 1946, no cat. (as Still Life).
William Merritt Chase, 1849–1916, A Retrospective Exhibition, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, N.Y., June 30–July 27, 1957, no. 102.
William Merritt Chase created many of his quickly executed paintings of fish as demonstrations for his painting classes. Generally he used dark brown backgrounds of the sort often used by artists in Munich, Germany, where he had studied art. He also was inpsired by the 17th-century Dutch and 18th-century French still life traditions seen in works such as those by Pieter Claesz and Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin.
Chase's still life paintings were so popular that the artist once quipped, "I suppose someday I shall be known only as a painter of fish." In this painting, he enjoyed setting off the silvery tones of fish against the warm gleam of the brass bowl in which his self-portrait is cleverly reflected.
To James S. Inglis, New York, 1907;
to estate of James S. Inglis, New York, by 1910;
to (American Art Association, New York, 9 March 1910, lot 113);
to (M. Knoedler & Co., 1910);
to (Newhouse Galleries, St. Louis, 1925);
to Albert R. and Mabel N. Jones, Kansas City, Mo.;
to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., 1933.
“Fine Pictures by ‘Ten Americans,’” New York American, March 20, 1907, 8.
R[oyal] C[ortissoz], “Art Exhibitions: The Ten American Painters,” New-York Daily Tribune, March 21, 1907, 7.
“Ten American Painters,” Sun (New York), March 22, 1907, 8.
“Annual Exhibition of the Ten,” American Art News 5 (March 23, 1907), 6.
“Ten American Painters,” New York Times, 25 March 1907, 6.
“Ten American Painters,” Evening Post (New York), March 30, 1907, 4.
David Lloyd, “The Exhibition of the Ten American Painters,” International Studio 31 (May 1907), 89, 96 (as Fish Still Life).
“The Influence of Individual Shows,” New York Herald, November 31, 1907, 4.
A Group of Twenty-four Paintings of the French, Spanish, German and American Schools Selected from the Cottier Gallery Which Comprises Nearly Five Hundred Original Paintings by Old and Modern Masters (New York: Cottier Gallery, 1908), unpaginated.
American Art Association, New York, March 9,
1910, lot 113.
Lena McCauley, “Chicago Art Institute Exhibition,” Art and Progress 2 (December 1910), 50.
Twenty-third Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1910), unpaginated.
Third Annual
Exhibition: Oil Paintings by Contemporary American Artists, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery
of Art, 1910), unpaginated.
“Notes: Reviews,” Craftsman 10 (April 1911), 110.
Catalogue of the 106th Annual Exhibition, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1911), 49.
Exhibition of Pictures by Ten American Painters, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1919), unpaginated.
“Still Life by Chase Which Reflects the Artist’s Self Portrait,” Art News 23 (August 15, 1925), 5 (as Still Life and Striped Bass).
“Fine American Art,” Kansas City Times, December 9, 1933, 2.
“Liberal with Art,” Kansas City Star, January 1, 1936, 8.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts: Founders and Benefactors (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1940), 24.
The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 149, 157, 166 (as Still Life).
“Little Stories,” Winfield (Kans.) Daily Courier, November 7, 1946, 2 (as Still Life).
Chase Centennial Exhibition Commemorating the Birth of William Merritt Chase November 1, 1849, exh. cat. (Indianapolis: John Herron Art Museum, 1949), unpaginated (as Striped Bass).
William Merritt Chase, 1849–1916, A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat. (Southampton, N.Y.: Parrish Art Museum, 1957), 118.
Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 255 (as Still Life).
Abraham David Milgrome, “The Art of William Merritt Chase,” Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1969, 228.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 251 (as Still Life).
Ten American Painters, exh. cat. (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1990), 36, 91.
Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 58–59.
Alice Thorson, “Eden’s Bounty: Nelson Buys Still Life of American Abundance,” Kansas City Star, November 26, 1992, G10 (as Still Life with Bass).
Margaret C. Conrads, “Masterful American Still Life Joins Collection,” Calendar (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), November 1992, 2.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 242, 414.
Margi Conrads, “The Art of Interiors,” Art and Antiques 20 (September 1997), 82.
Alice Thorson, “Uncover the Painting, Discover the Past: Restoring Artwork Can Be a Touchy Job for This Conservator,” Kansas City Star, June 9, 1998, E1.
Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 181-83 (repro.), 2: 84-85 (repro.).
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook
of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
2008), 174 (repro.).
