Still Life with Fish 

William Merritt Chase’s “Still Life with Fish” is an oil on canvas painting that reflects the late 19th-century American art scene's engagement with European traditions. Chase, positioned as a cosmopolitan artist, trained in Munich, absorbing its dark, tonalist aesthetic, visible here. The painting portrays dead fish, arranged with a stark formality alongside kitchen objects such as a bowl and various vegetables. This isn't merely a depiction of objects, but a statement reflecting the cultural values of the time. The subdued palette and careful arrangement evoke a sense of bourgeois domesticity, yet there's an unsettling stillness, a kind of morbid elegance. The fish, once vibrant, are now objects. Chase said "I would rather go to the fish market than to the Louvre." His words point to a desire to find beauty in the everyday, a radical idea at a time when art was often about historical or mythological subjects. Ultimately, this painting captures a moment of quiet contemplation and subtly questions the relationship between life, death, and the aesthetic appreciation of the mundane.