After the centennial of 1876 the foremost place for American artists to show was no longer New York but Paris. By the late nineteenth century the Paris Salon was the most important exhibition space in the Western world. Artists from many nations would submit their best works to its annual exhibition. The honor of being accepted presaged an artist’s future success. Thousands of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper were presented at each Salon; the exhibition halls were so crowded that paintings were hung to the ceiling with sculptures scattered about. To be hung “on the line” (at eye level) meant a work of art ranked among the best in the show. Since a painting might be skied (hung near the ceiling), many artists painted on a large scale to ensure that their work could be seen no matter where it was placed.
Contrary to earlier periods, American painting in the late 1800s was no longer dominated by a single aesthetic. Munich-school paintings—narrative scenes, often based on literature or history and painted in a dark palette—as well as small figure paintings in the realist tradition were popular in both France and the United States. Large portraits represent the academic style that dominated official taste during this era. Bright, sun-drenched scenes by a more progressive group of artists, the impressionists are diametrically opposite in color, mood, and concept to muted tonalist and symbolist works. Whereas the impressionists celebrated contemporary life with all its transformations, the tonalists and symbolists created hazily illuminated, dreamlike imagery.
Sculptures range from academic examples of idealized mythological imagery to expressions of the newer interest in the emotive potential of the human form. Equestrian bronzes by Frederic Remington demonstrate that at the turn of the century there was a continuing enthusiasm for heroic depictions of the West despite the increased internationalism of American taste.

At the Munich Academy, where Chase studied from 1874 to 1878, he often had to compose sketches based on literature, history, or the Bible. Later these would be expanded into larger, more finished paintings. Such exercises taught the young artist to compose multi-figure scenes so that the narrative was easy to understand. Chase was near the end of his schooling when he first depicted Columbus explaining his belief in a western passage to India. Students were taught always to place the hero of a story in the center foreground, looking towards the viewer in the manner of a stage actor. Chase, flaunting his training, depicted Columbus with his back to the viewer. Nonetheless, he won a prize for the sketch. His furious teacher demanded that Chase paint a “correct” second version. Chase did so but never produced a larger example. Instead he returned to the United States, where he abandoned academic history painting for impressionism.