William M. Chase, N. A.

In 1902 a group of art students clubbed together to commission this portrait of their teacher, William Merritt Chase, from the most sought-after painter of the age, John Singer Sargent. They wanted it for the Metropolitan Museum as a tribute, and raised the fee by touring the finished canvas through New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Sargent painted it in his London studio and made one firm demand. Chase arrived wanting to pose in a formal frock coat. Sargent made him put on his old blue studio smock instead, the one he actually worked in. So Chase stands as a working painter, palette in one hand, brush poised, half turned as if you had just interrupted him at the easel. The letters after his name mark his membership of the National Academy.