William Merritt Chase was born on November 1, 1849, in Williamsburg, Indiana, to merchant David Chase and Sarah Swaim Chase. In 1861, the Chase family moved to Indianapolis, where he studied art under Barton S. Hays. In 1869, he left Indiana for New York City, and in 1872, the young artist embarked for studies at the Royal Academy in Munich. Chase remained in Europe for several years, living, studying, and painting in Venice in 1876-1877 with Frank Duveneck and John Twachtman. In 1878, he returned to New York to teach at the newly established Art Students League. Artist Charles Henry Miller wrote: "Mr. Chase upon returning to New York virtually took the town by storm, capturing its chief artistic citadel [. . .] the exhibition gallery of the Tenth Street Studio Building [. . .]." (Quoted in William Merritt Chase, 1849-1916 by Ronald G. Pisano, 1983, p. 42.) For the next nearly four decades, Chase lived, taught, painted, and advanced the cause of fine art in America, exhibiting in his many wonderfully good portraits, still-life paintings, and landscapes his bravura with brush and chalk. Some of his impressionistic paintings are really quite astonishing in their technique.
William Merritt Chase died on October 25, 1916, in New York City. He and Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley were exact contemporaries, having been born in and died in the same years. Whereas most of Riley's poems have not aged well, Chase's paintings live on as the imperishable works of a great artist. Below is one example, "The Nursery" from 1890, a fine picture for this beautiful spring season.
For my parents' wedding anniversary.
Text copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley
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