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Philip Leslie Hale (1865–1931), “A Summer Visit (Matunuck, Rhode Island),” 1895, oil on canvas, 32 by 39 inches.

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William Merrit Chase (1849–1916), “Child Star Elsie Leslie Lyde as Little Lord Fauntleroy,” circa 1888, oil on canvas, 69¼ by 39½ inches.

MUST RUN 3/7

‘AMERICAN MASTERS’ ON VIEW AT SPANIERMAN GALLERY w/2 cuts

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NEW YORK CITY — Spanierman Gallery presents “American Masters, 1840–1920,” on view through March 22. The exhibition and sale includes more than 50 works by American artists whose names are now ingrained in the cultural heritage.

The art and careers of many of those included have been the subject of important exhibitions in the past few decades, and their chronologies have been charted, providing opportunities for individual works to be studied and appreciated from new angles. In the process, many images have gained new importance and provided fresh insight into their creators and the eras in which they were produced.

This exhibition has an unusually large number of works of significance by prominent artists, but several seen especially worthy of notice. These include the show’s keynote image, William Merritt Chase’s “Child Star Elsie Leslie Lyde as Little Lord Fauntleroy,” circa 1888. Executed about midpoint in Chase’s career, the depiction of this child actress in costume evidences the distinct combination of skill, flair and charm that Chase often realized in his portraits.

While the work captures the piquant nature of it star (whose performance in the debut of this play based on the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel on Broadway was attended by Chase), the painting also reveals Chase’s propensity for the sensuous qualities of objects and materials, as demonstrated in the sumptuous fur rug on which the subject stands, the tasseled velvet cushion at her feet and other aspects of her attire and surroundings.

Other works illuminate particular moments of artists’ lives and careers. In “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” 1859, Thomas Moran created a romantic, epic image, depicting a scene from Robert Browning’s poem of 1852 in which a man’s resolute obsessive journey over a tortuous terrain to find a legendary tower will mean ultimate destruction. Winslow Homer created his watercolor “Waiting,” 1880, in Gloucester, Mass., depicting a pensive girl gazing toward an intense slice of sea in the background that allows the viewer to imagine a maritime tale of longing. The work reflects the themes of mortality and destiny that are at the basis of the powerful nature of Homer’s art.

“The Promised Land (The Ferry to Appledore),” circa 1879, is an unusual subject for William Morris Hunt, depicting an ocean journey that focuses on the travelers on the deck of a ship. The work probably dates from 1879, the year that Hunt drowned off the coast of Appledore, the ship’s destination.

“Patch Painting,” 1886, belongs to a small group of works in this genre by John Peto, which are related to his “rack” pictures, but omit a rack itself. One of Peto’s patch paintings that has his largest gathering of elements, the painting includes images of the works of Philadelphia artists whom Peto knew and references to his life in Philadelphia, alluding to the struggles he faced in attempting to achieve recognition and to even attain a basic level of subsistence.

John Twachtman’s best known images include his closely cropped, abstractly composed views of the waterfall on Horseneck Brook, which curved through his property in Greenwich, Conn. This exhibition includes one of Twachtman’s finest examples of this subject, a view of dappled light on the falls as it curves under a shady overhang of trees. The painting is one of few that Twachtman himself sold to a private collector, and it remained in the family of the original owner from 1898 until 1997.

Other works in the show are Albert Bierstadt’s “Mt Shasta, California,” circa 1863; Philip Leslie Hale’s “A Summer Visit (Matunuck, Rhode Island),” 1895; and Edward Potthast’s “The Shade” circa 1920.

The gallery is at 45 East 58th Street. For information, www.spanierman.com or 212-832-0208.