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The Big Tree Shadow

Artwork Tombstone
ArtistWilliam Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916)
TitleThe Big Tree Shadow
DateCa. 1886
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsImage: 19 3/8 x 24 1/4 in. (49.2 x 61.6 cm)
Credit LineGiven in honor of Mildred and Clarence Long by their sons David and Randy, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number2023.62
This artwork is currently on view.
Image Forthcoming

Indiana-born William Merritt Chase was one of the leading American Impressionist painters of the late nineteenth century. His work blends the French Impressionists’ attention to light with the painterly brushwork of old masters such as Frans Hals and Peter Paul Rubens. In the second half of the 1880s, Chase produced a series of paintings portraying New York City parks. Parks such as Central Park and Prospect Park were developed to provide city-dwellers with an antidote to the rapidly industrializing urban landscape. In this painting of a Brooklyn park, smokestacks are visible in the background.

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"The Big Tree Shadow | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2023.62