PLEIN AIR HERITAGE
William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) was already a popular artist in Manhattan in 1891, when prominent art patron Janet Hoyt invited him to Shinnecock, Long Island, to start an open-air school of art. At the time, plein air painting was still relatively new to the United States, but growing rapidly in popularity. Each summer for the next 12 years, a hundred or so students flocked to the beach resort for Chase’s outdoor classes. Two days a week, he instilled in them the virtues of dispensing with sketches or preparatory drawings and painting directly on canvas in the presence of nature. The decade-plus that Chase spent with the school would mark a new chapter in his art and family life. While the artist was busy teaching or painting, his wife and children —…