Gifted with extraordinary instincts, Oliver Chaffee embraced the work of Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, and other French Fauvists and made it his own. Fellow artist Ross Moffet said of Chaffee: “Chaffee oils and watercolor landscapes represent one of the highest achievements realized by a Provincetown painter. He was modern before modernism was popular.” Chaffee was among the most instrumental figures in establishing Provincetown, Massachusetts, as the one of the country’s most influential art colonies.