Shinnecock Hills 1895

Editor: This is William Merritt Chase’s "Shinnecock Hills," painted in 1895. The texture of the brushstrokes makes me think of materiality and connection with landscape, a seemingly quiet scene. What strikes you when you look at this work? Curator: I see a visual record, but also an ideological one. Chase was instrumental in founding the Shinnecock Summer School of Art on Long Island. Beyond just capturing the landscape, think about what it meant for artists, largely white and from privileged backgrounds, to represent this specific place. How do you see the artist's perspective influencing the composition? Editor: I guess I hadn’t considered the act of depiction itself as a kind of statement. Now that you mention it, it feels a bit like the land is being claimed or possessed through the very act of painting it. Curator: Exactly! Consider the historical context: The Shinnecock tribe has inhabited this land for thousands of years. How does this painting either acknowledge or erase that history? Do you see any indications of Indigenous presence? Editor: I don’t, actually. The painting seems focused solely on the "natural" landscape. Does that lack of representation tell its own story, then? Curator: Precisely. The absence speaks volumes. It reflects the dominant narrative of the time, which often overlooked or actively suppressed Indigenous histories and land rights. It makes you wonder: whose perspective are we really seeing? Editor: I see what you mean. This definitely reframes my view. What seemed like a peaceful landscape is much more complicated. Curator: Art is never created in a vacuum; it reflects and shapes the society around it. Editor: Thanks, I’ll definitely look at landscapes differently now. I didn’t anticipate the political undercurrents within what seemed a pretty landscape painting.