Dutch Pinkie Coming to Anchor

Frederick Billings purchased this painting from the artist about 1875. It is a shore scene in the Netherlands, showing the approach of several “pinkjes” or traditional Dutch fishing boats.

Chase was a native of Woodstock, Vermont, and of a family well known to Frederick Billings from his boyhood. The artist grew up in Woodstock, the son of a doctor and grandson of a newspaper publisher in the village. He and his family migrated to the Midwest during the Civil War, and settled in St. Louis, but maintained ties to their relatives and friends in Woodstock. Harry Chase went to Europe in 1872, and studied at the Hague, in Paris and Bavaria. Some time after 1875 he returned to open a studio in New York. He became an Associate of the National Academy in 1883. His daughter Rhoda Chase became an artist and illustrator, and he may also have been related to the better-known American Impressionist painter, William Merritt Chase.