William Merritt Chase: Eventful Years in Art and Life

"Mrs. William Merritt Chase (Alice Bremond Gerson)"
by William Merritt Chase

"1886 was the year of Chase's marriage. That circumstance which can make or mar an artist and which even in the least influential case in some way affect his development, was a fortunate one for Chase, for his wife then and always complemented his life and his art. Brought up in intimate association with art and artists, married to an artist in whom the impulse to pass on his knowledge of the beauty he had found was irresistible, Mrs. Alice Gerson Chase derived from and adapted herself to her environment, and in every way contrived to create the atmosphere of art in their home.

It was also the year of Chase's exhibition at the Boston Art Club, which was something of an event in his artistic career, since at that time the one-man exhibit so usual today was practically unknown. It was also during this year that he was again elected president of the Society of American Artists, an office held for nine years. His influence in that position cannot be overestimated.

For the first winter of their married life the Chases lived for a short time in the Tenth Street Studio apartment. Those were interesting days. The studio itself was a thing quite unique. Overcrowded though it may appear in photographs, the painters who remember it distinctly say that its whole effect was one of great beauty of tone and color. 

My own memory was of a vast darkish place containing beautiful spots of color. But the memory that remained with me was the extraordinary kindness of the painter with the Van Dyck beard in showing me his canvases as if my tastes and opinions were of real importance. 

And then in the winter of 1890 Carmencita danced in the Tenth Street Studio before the most distinguished audience in New York" - but more of that tomorrow.

To be continued

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