Praised for his jewel-like landscapes, park scenes, and sympathetic images of women, William Merritt Chase was a leading American Impressionist painter and an influential teacher in the late nineteenth century. This beautifully illustrated volume provides a compact introduction to Chase's paintings and pastels and samples several of his favorite motifs, including the theatrical environment of his antique-filled studio, the modern women he celebrated, the costumes and decorative arts of Japan, children at play in city and countryside, and thoughtful moments of leisure and contemplation. A native of the state of Indiana, Chase left his modest boyhood home to study at the Munich Academy, where he both fell in love with the old masters and became determined to celebrate the people and places of his own time. His studio became a stage set for his imagination, where objects from around the world came together in harmonious arrangements of color and form, and where subjects and patrons alike were dazzled by both his paintings and his artistic persona.