Lilian Westcott Hale is Painted
Portrait of Lillian Westcott Hale was painted sometime between 1902 and 1914, but the exact circumstances are difficult to discern as scholars' accounts differ as to exactly when the portrait was finished.
Chase scholar Ronald Pisano dates the painting to 1914 without offering reasoning in his catalogue of Chase's work [2].
Letters both from Marion Lewis Lothrop [3], the donor of the painting, and Lillian Westcott Hale’s daughter Mrs. Bowers[4], suggest to an earlier date before 1908.
Erica E. Hirshler wrote her dissertation on Mrs. Hale, and provides correspondences between the future Mrs. Hale and Chase asking Hale to pose while at the Shinnecock School, but these letters predate Hale’s marriage to Philip Hale suggesting the portrait was painted before 1902[5]. However, the painting is known most prominently as Mrs. Philip Hale, and "Mrs. Philip Hale" is signed on the back, suggesting it was painted after Mrs.Hale's marriage.
An additional source of dating is the appearance of Mrs. Hale. If the portrait was painted in 1902 Mrs. Hale would have been 21 which looks plausible, while if the painting was finished in 1914 Mrs. Hale would have been 33, much older than she looks in the portrait. Nancy Hale Bowers, Mrs. Hale's daughter wrote in regards to the portrait, "She looks younger than when I first remember her appearance, say 1910."[6]
The last component to the mystery is that the painting was never owned by the Hales, as Mrs. Bowers did not know of the existence of a portrait, suggesting that the portrait was not commissioned by the Hale's. As prominent Boston artists themselves, it is unlikely that the Hales would have commissioned a portrait from a New York artist all the way from Boston. This would have forced Mrs. Hale travel, an ordeal which Mrs. Bowers points out she would have remembered because it would be extravagant and out of the ordinary. Another portrait exists of Mrs. Hale, titled Lady in Black in which Mrs. Hale is shown from the neck up, which also was never owned by the Hales. Both paintings remained in Chase’s personal collection until his death in 1916.
It is unclear how the Chase decided to paint Mrs. Hale, either through commission as was common for wealthy families in the Gilded Age, or through his own inspiration from a beautiful young fellow artist, which he often did. The story of what happened to the paining after Chase’s collection was dispersed after his death is even more convoluted.
Text Sources:
[1] Erica Eve Hirshler, “Lilian Westcott Hale (1880-1963): a Woman Painter of the Boston School.” (PhD diss., Boston University, 1992) UMI Inventory # 31715. 40.
[2] Pisano, Ronald G., William Merritt Chase: Portraits in oil, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2007. 262.
[3] Marion Lewis Lothrop to Miss Brooks, May 20th 1950.
[4] Mrs. Nancy Hale Bowers to Mrs. Davidson.
[5] Catalogue of “The Realist Impulse.” Wheaton College, 2005.
[6] Mrs. Nancy Hale Bowers to Mrs. Davidson.
Image Source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shinnecock_Hills_Chase.jpg, acessed March 22, 2014.