Alice in the Shinnecock Studio (In the Studio)

"In the Studio" effectively collapses the boundaries between home and studio, the domestic and the productive spheres of Chase's life. Down a short flight of stairs from the expansive reception hall at Shinnecock, the studio was the creative core of the house and there is no better entry into Chase's artistic life than this painting.
While the studio itself is the nominal subject, the true theme is painting itself. The framed work on the easel, the luminous surfaces of the bric-a-brac, the study after a Velazquez head hung high on the wall, the north light streaming in- all coming together to form a portrait of the artist and his creative life. Alice Diedonnee, his first born, mother's image and father's favorite model, is seated before the easel, a surrogate for the viewer and indeed for the artist himself, permitting us entrance into the rarefied atmosphere of the studio.

Although we cannot see her face, we know that Alice's gaze is directly to the elaborate Spanish baroque frame and the painting within. Alice is further associated with the work of art by the sliver of shadow she casts onto the painting. She sits poised on a low seat that also serves as the piano bench, which Chase himself uses when painting. The presence of a spinet on the wall behind the painting confirms the presence of music in Chase's workspace, and the placement of the piano in the studio suggests that Mrs. Chase or Alice or one of the other daughters may have played while Chase was painting, a further sign of the unity of art and family life.