At Shinnecock Hills 

"At Shinnecock Hills" is an oil on canvas painting by William Merritt Chase. Chase's work is often read in relation to the emerging leisure class of the late 19th century, but this painting invites us to consider more than just the pleasures of landscape. Chase was central to the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, established in 1891, near an area inhabited by the Shinnecock Nation. The forced removal and cultural erasure of Indigenous people was critical to the creation of spaces like Shinnecock Hills. The painting evokes a sense of quiet solitude, yet it cannot be divorced from its historical context. The very ground Chase painted on carries a complex history of displacement and cultural disruption. It is important to consider the narratives that are absent, as well as those that are present, reflecting on how landscape painting can both reveal and conceal the histories embedded within the land.