William Merritt Chase: A Permanent Relationship

"Alice Gerson Chase" by W. M. Chase

"Mr. Gerson, who managed a successful New York lithography firm, was a delightful and witty person with much esprit. He had three attractive daughters and a musically talented son, and was intelligently interested in art in general, and to his home came many of the young artists of the day. The painters spent many pleasant evenings at the Gerson home. The young people amused themselves by making silhouettes of each other, sometimes the painters drew fantastic pictures in their cigar ashes on sheets of paper. Sometimes they went in groups to the theatre.

"Ready for the Ride" by Chase

When the Gerson girls saw Chase's picture 'Ready for the Ride,' at the National Academy, they felt a great desire to meet the talented young painter. At first he declined the invitations of his brother artists to accompany them to the Gerson home, but finally went, and there saw for the first time his future wife, a small, dark, picturesque young girl who looked like a child. That evening, before he left, he asked the eldest sister if Miss Alice (known to her family and intimates as 'Toady') would pose for him.

From the first, William Chase was a hero to young Alice Gerson. All three of the girls used to go to Chase's studio in Tenth Street, often taking their needlework with them. Sometimes they posed, sometimes the oldest sister or brother would play on a little organ there. Frequently, their father went with them. Chase soon grew to feel that he belonged to the Gerson family. 

When Chase's mother and sisters visited, he invited the Gersons to dine with them. All through the six years of association preceding his marriage Chase's friendship and affection for them grew, and to the last his wife's family were to him as his own. Finally in 1887 Alice and William were married."

To be continued

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