William Merritt Chase: A Family Man

"Shinnecock Studio Interior" by William Merritt Chase

"No man ever lived more completely in the atmosphere and idea of art than Chase did. He had no other compelling interests except his family, and, indeed, in his devotion to them art was inextricably intertwined.

At his first meeting with his wife, then a picturesque child, the strong impression she made upon his eye took the form of a desire to paint her. His children he painted almost from the moment of their birth. Art was talked in his home as it was in his studio.

Mrs.Chase never grew to dislike posing, as many members of painters' families do. Indeed, she was as frequently a volunteer as a conscript, devising costumes suitable to her type with the purpose of pleasing the painter's eye or of suggesting a subject. She says that he seldom kept her posing long enough to be fatiguing. The sureness of his seeing made the process swift.

Chase's home life was one of special harmony. He never seemed to be disturbed by the presence of his children even in his studio, perhaps because they understood so well how to keep their freedom from becoming intrusion. He was proud of them all, from the oldest son to the youngest girl, Mary Content, named for two of his pupils, and always took them to walk, all eight, every Sunday afternoon. He enjoyed nothing more than taking a cab full of children to Coney Island in the summer, where after dining them well, the distinguished artist enjoyed shooting the chutes and all the other diversions of that place.

The men who travelled in Europe with Chase tell of his constant remembrance of his family in his absences. 'We were always missing him and once almost lost our steamer because he would sit down to write to his wife at any and all spare moments,' remarked one man. He also remembers how Chase used to come into his stateroom to read him selections from the daily letters with which his wife and children had provided him, one for each day of the trip. He remembers shedding tears over the affectionate extracts that Chase read to him.

One last provision for the voyage made by Chase's wife was the indispensable white carnation which he always wore in his buttonhole. Mrs. Chase always left in the steward's care a sufficient number of these to last for the trip. One for every day!"

To be continued

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