At least one site erroneously attributes this painting to Wassily Kandinsky, but one can clearly see in the upper right corner scratched in the background, "W.M. Chase." With the jaunty tilt of his head, palette in hand and a red note on his jacket, he refers to an old master he greatly admired, drawing inspiration from Velázquez’s self-portrait in Las Meninas. Chase’s self-portrait, however, is rendered in pastel—a modern medium revived by avant-garde artists in the late 19th century. Considering pastel equal to oil, Chase co-founded the American Society of Painters in Pastel in 1882. The group’s monogram, stamped in red, can be seen in the upper right corner of the work. (http://arthistorynewsreport.blogspot.nl/2016/11/william-merritt-chase.html)