"In 1878 the young American artist William Merritt Chase returned to his native country after six years of training in Europe, primarily at the Royal Academy in Munich. As author Barbara Dayer Gallati notes in this study, Chase left the United States a painter and came back an artist.". "William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890, published to accompany a traveling exhibition of Chase's paintings of this period, considers the artist's creative process in the critical years following his return to the United States, exploring how his development reflected both new aesthetic preferences and pragmatic decision-making. This beautifully illustrated study gives a detailed account of this moment in Chase's career, allowing the reader to understand why and how he transformed his art at this particular time, and to appreciate the radical modernity of his new outlook, as well as the extraordinary importance of these urban landscapes in the context of American and European art of the period."--BOOK JACKET.