Good Friends, a 1909 painting by William Merritt Chase depicts an Impressionistic treatment of the flowers and plants of this scene are typical of Chase. These colors shift before our eyes, bringing almost a visual translation of their scents. The scene is broadly a description of the interaction of plants, grass, a grand house, and a blueish hillside with the expert atmospheric effects of the rippling heat of the afternoon.
A woman to the left and in front of the house pats her affectionate dog, and all in the scene speaks peaceful leisure. William Merritt Chase was an American Impressionist painter and educator who studied and traveled widely throughout Europe. Among his many students was Edward Hopper.
William Merritt Chase’s Good Friends is in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.