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WILLIAM MERRITT CHASE (american 1849-1916)/span "PORTRAIT OF MRS. G" Oil on canvas 52 x 38 1/2 in. (132.1 x 97.8cm) c. 1888 [Pisano OP.162] provenance: /spanThe Sitter. By descent in the family. Private Collection, Ohio. exhibited:/span "63rd Annual Exhibition." The National Academy of Design. New York. 1888. literature:/span "National Academy of Design 63rd Annual Exhibition." Daily Tribune. March 31, 1888, pp. 4-5. "National Academy of Design 63rd Annual Exhibition." Sun. April 3, 1888, pg. 16. "The Academy Exhibition." Nation. April 19, 1888. pp. 330-31. "Spring Exhibition of the Academy and the Society." Art Review 3 no.1 [July - August 1888] pg. 31. note:/span This painting depicts Cornelia Rogers Huntington Greer (b. 1836) and was likely commissioned given that Chase also completed a portrait of Greer's son Colbert (OP. 145). This painting was originally dated circa 1912 based on information provided by descendants of the sitter. However, several reviews of a work entitled Portrait of Mrs. G. that was exhibited once during the artist's lifetime - at the Spring Exhibition at the National Academy of Design in 1888 - suggest an earlier date, as they seem to be describing the present portrait of Mrs. Greer. A critic for the New York Daily Tribue writes "Mr. Chase's portrait of an elderly lady seated in a fur-trimmed blue robe, seen against a hanging of a very pale blue, is a picture which has earned its honorable place not only by the cleverness of coloring, but also by the firmness and strength of the modeling." (New York Daily Tribune[March 31, 1888];4-5). A writer for the New York Sun comments, "More should be said for the portrait of an elderly lady in a dark blue gown against a curtain of lighter blue" ([New York]Sun, April 3, 1888, 16). A rave review and further description of the work is given in the Nation, which describes it as "dignified, of excellent style, and showing the artist's appreciation of quiet tones and his ability to harmonize the figure and costume, with the accessories, in a complete ensemble at its best" (Nation, April 19, 1888, 331). Finally, another critic discussing the exhibition writes that the Portrait of Mrs. G has been "treated with an eye to color likewise, but in a much quieter and more wholesome manner. There is more of the character of the sitter about it, and a reasonable concession to the needs of good portrait painting" (Art Review, July-August 1888, 31). Further supporting the date circa 1888 is that Chase painted the portrait of Greer's son Colbert circa 1886: it seems likely that he would have executed both portraits at around the same time. A further consideration is the age of the sitter, who would have been seventy-six years old in 1912 (the original dating), though in the portrait she appears to be much closer to the fifty-two years of age she would have been in 1888. (Pisano, Ronald G., The Complete Catalogue of Works of Known and Documented Works by William Merritt Chase vol. 2. pg. 82). The lot will be accompanied by ephemera relating to the sitter.