Alice Gerson in Prospect Park

William Merritt Chase

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Merritt Chase met Alice Gerson (1866–1927), whose father managed a successful New York lithography firm, in 1879 or 1880, and married her in 1887. The young couple settled in Brooklyn, where he painted his first park scenes. One of the artist’s favorite models, Mrs. Chase also appears, about a decade later, in For the Little One and At the Seaside, both hanging nearby. J. Carroll Beckwith, to whom Chase inscribed and gave this tonal sketch, taught with him at New York’s Art Students League.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art