William Merritt Chase: Europe Revisited

"Portrait of a Spanish Girl"
by William Merritt Chase

"1881 was the year of William Merritt Chase's first return trip to Europe. He took passage on the 'Belgenland' with Carroll Beckwith, Robert Blum, Herbert Denman, A.A. Anderson and a decorator named Lawrence. A few days out, Chase, very much bored with the enforced inactivity, proposed decorating the ladies' cabin, dragging his fellow painters into the project. The captain was delighted at having his ship decorated by modern masters. The cabin became a showroom while the pictures were allowed to remain, but not long afterward the panels were cut out and, it is said, were set up in the home of one of the owners of the line.

Chase spent most of his time in Spain that summer, but stopped for a short time in Paris, where he chanced to meet J. Alden Weir. Weir had gone over to purchase pictures for a wealthy New Yorker without any recompense save the collector's promise that the pictures should afterward be presented or left to the Metropolitan Museum. As soon as Chase heard his friend's errand, he exclaimed: 'Come with me right away to Durand-Ruel's. They have two wonderful Manets there. You must have them.' Weir went with Chase at once, and that is how the Metropolitan Museum came into possession of the 'Boy with the Sword' and the 'Girl with the Parrot.'

It was during this trip to Paris that Chase met the Belgian artist Alfred Stevens, whose art he admired so profoundly. Stevens gave the highest praise to Chase's beautiful portrait of Duveneck in the Salon, but he made a comment that proved to be a turning-point in Chase's art development: 'But why do you try to make your canvases look as if they had been painted by the old masters?' From that hour, Chase says, he sought to express his own individuality in his art.

Chase does not seem to have painted much upon this trip, although his study of Velasquez in the museum and the closer contact with Spanish art possible in the country had a very direct influence upon his painting. It seemed also to give added inspiration to his teaching. After his return to The League, his invigorating influence showed good results, his class that year did especially strong work."

To be continued

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