Woman Seated

William Merritt Chase, American painter and influential teacher, created this etching of a woman seated on a draped chair, rendered in bold black lines against a cream ground. The figure turns toward the viewer with casual elegance, her dress and posture suggesting a moment of studied repose. Chase's economy of line—achieved through selective cross-hatching and confident mark-making—demonstrates the technical mastery that made him a central figure in American art education. As both painter and printmaker, Chase helped establish the foundations of American artistic practice in the late nineteenth century, bridging academic tradition and emerging modernist approaches to form and composition.