Portraits of Women Stepping Out Into the World : Notes on William Merritt Chase

Nov. 1 is the birthday of a painter of America’s Gilded Age (1870s-1900) who showed women of his time ready to claim their space in society.

William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) paid homage to one of his fellow portraitists in his painting “The Lady in Black,” but did so in a way that brought honor — and not infamy— to the subject.