William Merritt Chase - Ring Toss [1896]

William Merritt Chase - Ring Toss [1896], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Following a spring 1896 visit with his wife and two eldest daughters to Madrid, where he copied Velázquez's Las Meninas (1656) at the Prado, Chase (American, 1849–1916) returned to Shinnecock, Long Island, in June to teach. It was possibly in response to Velázquez's magnum opus that he painted Ring Toss, portraying three of his daughters in his studio engaged in the popular parlour game. Nine-year-old Alice (Cosy) toes a chalked line on the polished hardwood floor; Koto Albertine crouches to retrieve a ring from under a rolling easel; and the youngest child, probably Dorothy, waits her turn. The informal composition, compressed space, sketch like rendering, and dispersed focus reveal Chase's appreciation of candid and trifling narrative and of the suitability of these stylistic devices to "rendering the passing incident of child life," according to a newspaper critic of the time.

[Oil on canvas, 102.6 x 89.2 cm]