William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He was born in Williamsburg, Indiana, and became a pupil of B. F. Hays in Indianapolis, of Joseph Oriel Eaton in New York, and subsequently of A. Wagner and Karl von Piloty in Munich. In New York he established a school of his own, after teaching with success for some years at the Art Students League. A worker in all media – oils, watercolor, pastel – etching and painting with distinction the figure, landscapes, and still lifes, he is perhaps best known for his portrait paintings, his sitters including some of the most important men and women of his time. Chase won many honors at home and abroad, became a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and for ten years was president of the Society of American Artists.