The Open Air Breakfast

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The Open Air Breakfast

Artist William Merritt Chase American, 1849-1916

Dateabout 1888

DimensionsFrame: 45 1/4 × 64 3/8 × 3 3/4 in. (114.9 × 163.5 × 9.5 cm)
Canvas: 37 7/16 × 56 3/4 in. (95.1 × 144.1 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1953.136

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 29A

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesPeat, W., "Checklist of Known Work by William M. Chase," in Chase Centennial Exhibition, (exh. cat.), John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, 1949, n.p. (as The Back Yard; Breakfast Out-of-Doors).

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 149, Nov.-Dec. 1953, repr. (det.) cover.

Pierson, William H., Jr., and Martha Davidson, eds., Arts of the United States: A Pictorial Survey, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1960, no. 2564, p. 301, repr.

"Art and American Life," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 7, no. 3, Autumn 1964, repr. p. 60.

Schwartz, Marvin D., "19th Century America," Arts Magazine, vol. 44, no. 6, April 1970, repr. p. 31.

"Art Nouveau in New York: Malerei," Du, vol. 31, no. 364, June 1971, p. 428, repr.

Haverstock, Mary Sayre, "A halcyon summer that lingered on and on- in painting," Smithsonian, vol. 3, no. 4, July 1972, p. 32, repr. (col.) pp. 32-33.

Williams, Hermann Warner, Jr., Mirror to the American Past, Greenwich, CT, 1973, p. 206, repr. fig. 199.

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "Purple shadows in the West," Apollo, vol. 98, no. 140, Oct. 1973, p. 310.

Glubok, Shirley, The Art of America in the Gilded Age, New York, 1974, repr. (col.) on cover.

Boyle, R., American Impressionism, Boston, 1974, p. 205, repr. p. 190.

Tashjian, Dickran, Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the Avant-Garde, 1910-1925, Middletown, CT., 1975, repr. 28th page of illus. after p. 164.

Lucie-Smith, Edward and Dars, Celestine, How the rich lived: the painter as witness 1870-1914, New York, 1976, repr. fig. 3.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 79.

Pisano, R., William Merritt Chase, New York, 1979, p. 48, pl. 15.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 30, pl. 92, col. pl. IV.

Strickler, Susan E., "American Paintings at the Toledo Museum of Art," Antiques, vol. 116, no. 5, Nov. 1979, p. 1116, repr. (col.) pl. XII.

Weinberg, H. Barbara, "Late-Nineteenth-Century American Painting: Cosmopolitan Concerns and Critical Controversies," Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 23, no. 4, 1983, p. 19, repr. fig. 2, p. 20.

Stebbins, Theodore, A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760-1910, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1983, , pp. 313, 314, repr. (col.) p. 166 no. 91. (French ed., entry on p. 329, 330).

Gerdts, William H., American Impressionism, New York, 1984, p. 134, pl. 142 (col.).

Fisher, Leonard Everett, Masterpieces of American Painting, New York, 1985, p. 98, repr. (col.) p. 96-97.

Pisano, Ronald G., Long Island Landscape Painting 1820-1920, Boston, 1985, p. 112, repr. (col.).

Novak, Barbara, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Nineteenth-Century American Painting, London, 1986, p. 277, repr. p. 276.

Huxley, Anthony, The Painted Garden, Secaucus, NJ, 1988, p. 17, repr. (col.).

Sullivan, Charles, ed., Imaginary Gardens; American Poetry and Art for Young People, New York, 1989, repr. p. 93 (col.).

Bryant, Keith L., William Merritt Chase: a Genteel Bohemian, Columbia, MO, 1991, pp. 133-134, 256, repr. pp. 132-133.

Hiesinger, Ulrich W., Impressionism in America: the Ten American Painters, Munich, 1991, p. 81, fig. 26, pp. 70-71 (col.).

Deitz, Paula, "Sitting in the Garden," Antiques, vol. 141, no. 6, June 1992, p. 986, pl. IX (col.) pp. 984-985.

Malerei des Impressionismus 1860-1920, Bd. II: Der Impressionismus in Europa und Nordamerica, Cologne, 1992, repr. p. 604 (col.).

Pisano, Ronald G., Summer Afternoons: Landscape Paintings of William Merritt Chase, Boston, 1993, p. 10, repr. p. 37 (col.).

Weinberg, H. Barbara, American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915, New York, 1994, pp. 146, 147, fig. 135.

Marcoci, Roxana, Gardens in Bloom, New York, 1995, p. [44], repr. p. [45] (col.).

Gallati, Barbara Dayer, William Merritt Chase, New York, 1995, pp. 56-58, 59, 61, repr. p. 58 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 137, repr. (col.).

Docherty, Linda J., "Model-Families: The Domesticated Studio Pictures of William Merritt Chase and Edmund C. Tarbell," in Not at Home: The Supression of Domesticity in Modern Art and Architecture, London, 1996, pp. 50-53, fig. 10, p. 49.

Pyne, Kathleen, Art and the Higher Life: Painting and Evolutionary Thought in Late Nineteenth-Century America, Austin, TX, 1996, pp. 282, 284, fig. 5.34.

Peters, Lisa N., Visions of Home, American Impressionist Images of Suburban Leisure and Country Comfort, Hanover, NH, 1997, p. 28, fig. 14, p. 30.

Roters, Eberhard, Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, Themen und Motive, Köln, 1998, bd. 2, p. 118, pl. 6, p. 231 (col.).

Stretch, Bonnie Barrett, "Sunday in the Park," Art News, vol. 99, no. 9, Oct. 2000, repr. p. 157 (col.).

Southgate, M. Therese, "The Cover," JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 286, no. 6, Aug. 8, 2001, p. 644, repr. on cover (col.).

Weber, Bruce and Sarah Kate Gillespie, Chase Inside and Out: The Aesthetic Interiors of William Merritt Chase, New York, Berry-Hill Galleries, 2004, p. 57, fig. 38.

Larkin, Susan G., American Impressionism: The Beauty of Work, Greenwich, CT, Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, 2005, p. 156, fig. 64.

Pisano, Ronald G., William Merritt Chase: Landscapes in Oil (Complete catalog of known and documented work by William Merritt Chase [1849-1916]), vol. 3, New Haven, Yale, 2009, L. 124, p. 60, repr.

Weinberg, Barbara ed., et al., American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life 1765 1915, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, pp. 134 138, 168, 180 n. 60, 209, repr. (col.) p. 136, fig. 126.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 269, repr. (col.).

Sullivan, Edward J., ed., Nueva York: 1613-1945, New York, New York Historical Society, 2010, pp. 181-2, repr. (col.) p. 183 (not in exhibition).

Marley, Anna O., The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015, repr. (col.) p. 165, pl. 36.

Hirshler, Erica E., William Merritt Chase, Boston, MFA Publications, 2016, pp.66-67, repr. (col.) p. 71.

Smithgall, Elsa, et al., William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master, New Haven, Yale Univeristy Press, 2016, pp. 120-121, repr. (col) pl. 36

Exhibition HistoryChicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 28th Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, 1915, no. 73, repr. (as Open Air Breakfast).

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition, 1916, no. 25, p. 142.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Loan Exhibition of Paintings by William M. Chase, 1917, no. 15 (as The Backyard; Breakfast Out-of-Doors).

Philadelphia, PAFA, 150th Anniversary Exhibition, 1955, no. 56, repr.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, 1957, no. 93.

Minneapolis, Minneapolis Museum of Art, Four Centuries of American Art, 1963-1964.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19th-Century America, Paintings and Sculpture, 1970, no. 173, repr.

Washington, National Gallery of Art, American Impressionist Painting, 1973, no. 17, repr. (cat. by M. Domit).

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910, 1974, no. 24, repr. (cat. by P. Hills).

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Washington, Corcoran Gallery; Paris, Grand Palais; A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, 1983, no. 91.

New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, American Paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art, 1986, repr. (col.).

Berlin, Nationalgalerie; Zürich, Kunsthaus, Bilder aus der Neuen eit, 1988-1989, no. T 85, repr. (col.).

Oreussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany. 1988-89.

Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Saint Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum; Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art; Kansas City, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art; et al. Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Art, 1995-1996, p. 76, repr. (col.).

Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890, 2000-2001, pp. 56-61, 132, n. 26, 27, 29, 150, pl. 12, p. 58 (col.).

Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum; Munich, Städische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Design, Inspiration, Delight: The Painter's Garden, 2006-2007, no. 66, p. 181, repr. (col.).

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life 1765-1915, 2009-2010, exhibited New York only.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1877-1920, Feb. 12-May 24, 2015.

Washington DC, The Phillips Collections; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Venice, Ca'Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna; William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master, June 4, 2016-May 2017.

Label TextAlthough at first glance this scene seems to capture a fleeting moment of casual backyard relaxation, on closer examination it more strongly resembles a carefully arranged still life painting. William Merritt Chase poses his young sister in a prominent, 17th-century Dutch-style black hat—possibly as a pun on her name, Hattie. His wife sits at the breakfast table, wearing a Chinese cap, the couple’s infant daughter beside her. Chase’s sister-in-law lounges in a hammock, while one of Chase’s beloved Russian wolfhounds naps by the fence. Objects are strategically placed throughout the yard—Chase’s own, in a fashionable section of Brooklyn—adding to the harmonious domestic atmosphere. The Japanese screen, potted tropical plant, Dutch hat, and Chinese cap reflect Chase’s sophisticated tastes. His studio on Tenth Street in Manhattan was famously filled with such exotic objects and costumes, which often turned up in his Impressionist-inspired paintings.