Though his daughter Koto had appeared in several of Chaseʼs Shinnecock Hills scenes during the 1990s,* the present work marks the first time the ten-year-old sat for her father for a formal portrait. Evidently pleased with the resulting work, Chase not only submitted it to the Pennsylvania Academyʼs annual exhibition soon after it was painted, but chose to show it at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, where an entire gallery was devoted to Chaseʼs work, attesting to his position as one of the leading artists of his day. Contemporary critic Charles H. Caffin singled out the picture for praise in his review of the Pennsylvania Academyʼs exhibition, calling it “in every respect an artistʼs conception and rendering of a child.”**

The Chase familyʼs second child, Koto Robertine Chase was named after a close Japanese family friend; her middle name was derived from that of Chaseʼs best friend, fellow artist Robert Frederick Blum (1857-1903). Here, Koto sits in a light blue summer dress and elaborately embellished straw hat, looking every bit the elegant young lady. Hands clasped, she watches her father paint, no doubt enjoying the attention and the opportunity to sit for a formal portrait as her older sister, Alice Dieudonnée had done previously. The cool, harmonious tones of blue and white flicker on the dark surface of the canvas, Chaseʼs free strokes of paint suggesting the distinctive personality and sparkle of this special young sitter.

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* These include The Fairy Tale, 1892 (Raymond and Margaret Horowitz Collection) and The Bayberry Bush, 1895 (Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York).
** The Artist 7 (February 1900), p. iii.