William Merritt Chase: Spain

"Sunny Spain" by William Merritt Chase

"The summer of 1905 William Merritt Chase had his class in Madrid. Mrs. Chase accompanied him as far as France, but was obliged to leave him to return to the children at the end of a few weeks. While in Madrid Chase stayed at the pension of Senora Carmona Dolores, who has entertained nearly all the painters who have visited Spain. Sargent always stayed there, also Whistler (her guestbook autographed with the butterfly was proof).

He found a studio for himself, a beautiful apartment in an old house. A pupil in the class that summer remembers how Chase took them all to Sorolla's house, which was filled with that painter's pictures. Sorolla was not in Madrid himself at the time, but his brother-in-law played the host in his absence.

Sunday in Madrid was a gala day for Chase. He began the day by wandering through the market, where he never failed to find treasures, always hunting for bargains. In the afternoon there was the bullfight, then in the late afternoon and evening he liked to watch the pageant of the streets from a seat at a sidewalk cafe. He delighted in picking out the Velasquez types in the crowd, finding now a dwarf, then a beggar, next an Andalusian horse, quite as if they had stepped out of a Velasquez canvas. I remember his saying that before he went to Spain he used to think those strange horses in the Velasquez pictures were a sort of artistic license, but that the very first day he went to Spain he saw one coming down the street. 

Walter Pach remembers the evening of an informal students' dance in Madrid when Chase sat with Senora Dolores, a spectator against the wall. Suddenly he jumped up, inviting the elderly Spanish lady to be his partner, and they both danced off together like the youngest people in the room, much to the delight of the students.

That was Chase's last visit to Spain. He always intended to go back, always retained his affection for the country, and often recalled the memories of his days there." 

To be continued

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