William Merritt Chase: An Artistic Boy

"The Morning News"
by William Merritt Chase

"William Merritt Chase was born in the little town of Williamsburg, Indiana, on November 1, 1849. His father was a native of Indiana as was his mother. The family lived in Williamsburg till William Chase was about twelve years old. It is almost impossible for us to picture the bareness and limitation of such an environment. 

His early concepts of art were gained from the crude lithographs that adorned the simple homes of the period, and the illustrations of such books as found their way into his circle. These the boy used to copy - not in his playtime, but in the hours dedicated to 'studying lessons.' As far back as he can remember he had the ambition , as he expressed it, 'to make pictures for books.' His attempts to draw began very early, but he did not have any painting materials until he was twelve or fourteen, and then only such colored pencils or watercolor paints as are given to children for playthings.

In the school that he attended, the teacher had a drawing class after school hours. Drawing lessons at that time meant making copies in pencil from a drawing book, filled with outline pictures of domestic animals, luxuriant trees, church spires, and old oaken buckets. In this guileless form of art, Chase's prowess soon far outstripped his teacher's skill. 

Soon he began to draw from life, people and things. Chase's schoolmates apparently did not hold the young artist's talent in great regard, but reviewing those days Chase never sentimentalized his lack of recognition. 'I am not sure that it is a bad thing to go to a school as I did, where the boys threw things at me, and asked if there was nothing else I could do, ' he said once to his class."

(Excerpts are from "The Life and Art of William Merritt Chase," by his former student, Katharine Metcalf Roof.)