An English Cod

William Merritt Chase

National Gallery of Art

A white-skinned fish, sliced open along its belly, lies across a porcelain plate next to a brass-colored vessel in this nearly square still-life painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. The objects are lit from our left, and the earth-brown background is in deep shadow. At the center of the composition, the fish’s head and tail flop off the white plate, which is painted with orange and blue flowers. Four smaller, silvery fish lie in two pairs on the brown, possibly wood tabletop. One pair is near the lower right corner of the canvas, and the other is to the left of the white fish’s gaping mouth. Touches of red on the tabletop are reflected in the brass pot, which stands on short legs and has two shallow handles at the upper rim. A heavily painted area on the pot could be an ornament, like a lion’s head in relief, but details are difficult to make out. The artist signed the work in wide, sprawling letters in the lower left corner, “WM M. Chase.”