William Merritt Chase depicts late 19th century Brooklyn parks in several of his paintings.
He lived with his family on Marcy Avenue at the time, so it’s no surprise that he painted scenes like this one from Tompkins Park in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Tompkins, named after a local abolitionist, was the first park established by the city of Brooklyn and laid out by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted.
Opened in the 1870s, it’s now called Herbert Von King Park, after a Bed-Stuy community leader.
Tags: 19th Century Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant 19th century, Brooklyn painters, Herbert Von King Park, Marcy Avenue Brooklyn, New York painters, Tompkins Park Brooklyn, William Merritt Chase
Ephemeral New York 
September 10, 2012 at 2:13 pm |
Beautiful painting! And after years and years of crime and decline, Von King Park is on the rebound. This photo from the BedStuy Patch is testimony to its renewal. http://bed-stuy.patch.com/listings/herbert-von-king-park#photo-2739110
September 10, 2012 at 2:40 pm |
Thanks for the photo! It’s not as well-known as Fort Greene Park, but it has its beauty and Victorian grace.
September 10, 2012 at 5:14 pm |
My father who would be 112 today lived on Marcy Avenue as a child. He took me to Tompkins Park on the way to Bedford Avenue to watch the” Decoration Day “parade. I was probably 7 years old at the time and remember the Legion guys marching with bright silver coloured helments. I really don’t remember too much about the park. Later as an adult, with a job that took me through the area, it was a place to avoid.
September 10, 2012 at 8:09 pm |
It was a place to avoid for a quarter century, at least. Be grateful that you have such a terrific, magical image of the place!
September 10, 2012 at 8:38 pm |
I think it’s on the way back though!
September 11, 2012 at 2:23 am |
And there is a nice community garden across the street. I was there at the end of August and the park and garden are very nice. The baseball field has an interesting design.
September 29, 2012 at 12:43 am |
I love this park! I live two blocks away, My dog Ozzy and I are always meandering through it.
February 28, 2013 at 4:32 am |
[…] 1899, with encouragement from William Merritt Chase, he moved to New York City,” states oxfordgallery.com. Here he opened a studio, became […]
September 15, 2013 at 10:19 pm |
The first park opened by the City of Brooklyn wasn’t Tompkins. It was Commodore John Barry Park.
April 4, 2014 at 3:36 am |
Does anyone know what church steeple is pictured in the Chase painting in Tompkins Park?
September 22, 2014 at 7:25 am |
[…] studying with William Merritt Chase, Maurer took off for Paris, the center of the art world at the time, where he worked in a mostly […]
July 22, 2019 at 4:50 am |
[…] It starts with Impressionist painter William Merritt Chase. He was dubbed the “artistic interpreter” of Central Park and Prospect Park in an 1891 Harper’s Weekly article, owing to his many evocative landscapes of these and other city green spaces. […]