William Merritt Chase: Critiques

"At the Seaside" by William Merritt Chase

"William Merritt Chase had a deeply rooted hatred of conventionality. Above all things, he warned his Shinnecock students against the rut, and the danger of seeing things 'in a tiresome way.' Of himself he said: 'I have experimented always.' In order to uproot any tendency to routine in the minds of his students he held contests in which the student was advised to imagine the most unlikely seeing of his subject. To stimulate competition, Chase offered one of his own sketches as a prize for the best result.

One summer when a hectic wave of impressionism was agitating the students' colony, several canvases were brought into the Shinnecock class showing lurid patches of yellow and blue. When Chase saw them he began to hem and hum, tug at the string of his glasses, tap his stick upon the floor, and twist his moustache. Finally, with a slight frown, he turned upon the perpetrator:

'And it was as yellow as that?' he asked. 'Oh, yes, Mr. Chase. Really it was. The sun was right on it, you know, and it was very yellow.' The pupil babbled on, imagining that she was being very convincing. 'Hm,' was Chase's reply, after another glance. 'And September not here yet! Give the goldenrod a chance, madam. Give the goldenrod a chance.'

One of his suggestions helpful to the imaginative student was 'Consider nature as the painted thing.' 'Paint a tree that the birds could fly through' was another. 'Make your sky look as if we could see through it, not as if it were a flat surface,' and 'Notice how the darkest spot outdoors is lighter than the white windowsill within' - an entirely practical hint.  

One afternoon in the week Chase's studio was open to students - indeed anyone in the area - for his talks. Always all that he knew or had to give was at the disposal of the interested, whether it was a brother artist, a student, or the merest outsider.

Nineteen hundred and two was the last summer of the art school. It was never larger or more successful than in its last year and every one concerned regretted Chase's decision to give it up. During the eleven years of its existence a far-reaching influence had been set in motion, for in that time little more than a decade Shinnecock had set its impress upon the landscape art of America. The following summer Chase began to hold his summer classes in Europe."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Art of William Merritt Chase" by Katharine Metcalf Roof.)