For the Little One

For the Little One

William Merritt Chase

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

"For the Little One" shows Chase’s wife, Alice, in the entry hall of the couple’s summer home at Shinnecock, in the town of Southampton, Long Island, New York. The artist captured her engaged in a genteel handicraft with a maternal subtext: sewing a bit of apparel for a “little one,” presumably one of the five children in the Chase family by 1895. While he included in the scene decorative elements that conjured the aesthetic atmosphere of their residence, Chase focused more intently on the effects of light, demonstrating his command of plein-air painting, even with an indoor subject.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

For the Little OneFor the Little OneFor the Little OneFor the Little OneFor the Little One

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.