“A Visit to the Garden”
“A Visit to the Garden” is a lovely oil on panel painting by the American Impressionist artist, William Merritt Chase, from 1890. It was first exhibited in 1891 at the Society of American Artists in New York City, an artists’ group where Chase was also currently residing as president.
Chase and his wife lived in New York City. He spent much of his time exploring the green spaces of the city for inspiration for his art. Today, Chase’s paintings provide us with a great visual record of the various parks throughout New York City towards the end of the nineteenth century. His most famous landscape series depicts both Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, both landmarks of the city.
In this piece, Chase depicts an area in the northwest section of Central Park where a nursery was located. As seen here, a variety of flowers, trees, and other plants were raised in garden beds until they were ready to be transplanted to their final homes in other areas of the park. As such, for many years, this painting was referred to as “The Nursery”.
“A Visit to the Garden” is currently in the Manoogian Collection, a private collection.
For more on William Merritt Chase, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
