William Merritt Chase (1849-1918) was the American painter whose work is most closely associated with the French Impressionists. He was encouraged to pursue his interest in art. He studied with a local artist in Indiana. He then decided to become a sailor and worked on a merchant ship for three months. In 1869 he enrolled in the National Academy of Design in New York City. Lacking funds, he returned to the Midwest to live with his family in St Louis. Active in the local art community, Chase caught the attention of a wealthy St Louis collector, who hired him to help with purchasing art in Europe and paid for Chase to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
Chase’s work was exhibited in Europe and in America at the Boston Art Club (1886). One of his paintings won a medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. While in Europe he became friends with American artists Winslow Homer, Frank Duveneck, and John Twachtman. Between Europe and New York these relationships continued, and Chase thrived. He became a successful portrait, landscape, and still-life painter working in oil, pastel, and watercolor.
Chase made many paintings of his family. He and Alice Gerson married in 1887, and they had eight children. He painted Open Air Breakfast (1888) (37”x57’’) in the backyard of his parents’ home on Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn. Alice is seated at the table next to their first child, also named Alice but called Cosy, who sits in the high chair. Standing behind them is Chase’s sister Hattie, and his sister-in-law Virginia, lounging in the hammock. A black wolfhound sleeps on the lawn. Chase painted the scene En plein air, a French Impressionist practice he made popular in America.
The setting is a fenced yard with a bright green lawn and touches of red, yellow, and white flicked brush strokes. Chase’s approach to Impressionism is most notable in the white clothing and table cloth shadowed with blue rather than gray. Unlike the Impressionists, he used black throughout the work. Along the fence are rose bushes, their red blossoms depicted with dots of paint. The rest of the abundant foliage, both inside and outside the fence, is suggested with Chase’s unique Impressionistic style. The white door and stair railing of the house next door draws the viewer’s eye toward the distance.
Chase liked to enhance his work with objects from the large collection of items he kept in his New York studio. A blue and white Chinese vase is set on the right side of the lawn. The colors lead the eye to the blue and white of the family portrait. His wife Alice’s black hair is topped with an embroidered Japanese cap. Hattie’s large black hat is 17th century Dutch, and she holds a Japanese fan. The screen is Japanese. A Spanish shawl is draped over the chair. The French Impressionists were influenced by Japanese objects and art. Chase was as well.
The art critic W. H. de B. Nelson, editor of The International Studio magazine wrote, “If Mr. Chase had never painted any other picture, this one alone would place him on the highest plane of American painting. The exquisite mastery of the entire situation, the complete harmony, quality of the color, the unity—everything combines to label it a great performance.” (1916) Chase kept this painting with him until his death.
From 1890 until 1902, the Chases spent summers along the Shinnecock Inlet, an estuary on the south shore of Long Island that opens to the Atlantic Ocean. Idle Hours (1894) (36”x26”) is one of many paintings of his family at their summer retreat. The setting is a sunny day, and his wife, sister, and two daughters lounge on the grassy dunes overlooking the beach. His wife Alice, wearing the red hat, is reading a book, her parasol on the grass beside her. One daughter sits close while the other is stretched out, looking at the sky. His sister Hattie, using the parasol for shade, sits comfortably a short distance from the others. Their white dresses stand out in the sunlight. Their casual poses tell viewers they are enjoying this beautiful summer day. Chase explained, “I want all the light I can get. When I have found the spot I like, I set up my easel, and paint the picture on the spot. I think this is the only way to interpret nature.” (1891)
On the Beach Shinnecock (1895) (13”x20”) is one of Chase’s watercolors. His two daughters, in the white dresses, do what all children love to do, play in the sand. The two highlighted elements, the orange pail and the fun flowered bonnet, are delightful. The dark shadow on the sand, his daughter’s dark hair, and the flowers on her hat create a triangular composition. This simple painting depicts so well the joy of simple pleasures.
With the help of Jane Ralston Hoyt, an entrepreneur and real estate developer, Chase established the Shinnecock Hills Summer Art School (1891-1902). The school was in the ocean-front village of Southampton on Long Island. The school was a success. It was the first plein air school in the US. It attracted 100 to 150 amateur and professional artists each summer. The school was supported by the Carnegies, Astors, and Vanderbilts. Chase taught on two days each week, giving landscape and portrait painting demonstrations, and offering excellent critiques of students’ work. In 1892 the Chases moved into their summer house, built by the well-known architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White.
Shinnecock Hills, Summer (1895) (18’’x22”) is a pastel, another medium in which Chase excelled. The powdery quality of pastels can be seen in Chase’s combination of vertical strokes in a variety of colors to create a lush and velvety lawn. His success with pastels helped to revive the use of the medium. He was a co-founder of the Society of Painters in Pastel in New York City in 1882. The Ssociety lasted only until 1890, but the use of pastels flourishes today.
The Little Garden (1895) (27”x38”) is an oil painting. A similar painting in 1897 (not shown) was titled Seaside Flowers, referring to his daughters as the flowers. It serves as a reminder that one theme can be portrayed in different ways. Elements like the white dresses, colorful hats, bright flowers, and a small wooden wheelbarrow, and a sunny summer day were loved by his patrons. They were reminded of the beauty of nature and simple pleasures of life. Coaching his students, he said, “You must be right out under the sky. You must try to match your colors as nearly as you can to those you see before you, and you must study the effects of light and shade on nature’s own hues and tints.”
Chase taught at the Shinnecock Hills Summer Art School until 1902. He opened the Chase School of Art in New York City in 1896. It was renamed the New York School of Art in 1898, and now we know it as the Parsons School of Design.
Chase taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1889 until 1909, the Art Students League from 1878 until 1896 and later from 1907 until 1911, and at the Brooklyn Art Association in 1887 and from 1891 until 1896. Chase began holding summer classes in Italy in 1900, and from 1907 until 1911 he lived in a villa in Fiesole in the hills above Florence. He held his last summer class in Venice in 1913. Chase died in 1916 in New York.
As a teacher he was generous, respected, and highly influential. Among the many American artists he taught were Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Charles Demuth, Edward Hopper, and Joseph Stella. Georgia O’Keeffe said, “There was something fresh and energetic and fierce and exacting about him that made him fun.”
Summer officially begins on June 21. The Atlantic beaches will be crowded with families enjoying the sun, sand, and surf. The Chase family is At the Seaside (1898), spread out in groups along the beach under large umbrellas and enjoying the sun and being together.
Have a Great Summer.