William Merritt Chase: Teaching in England

Queen Alexandra's Coronation Gown
a study by Edwin Austin Abbey

"The Coronaton of King Edward VII," 15' x 9'
by Edwin Austin Abbey

In the summer of 1904 William Merritt Chase held his summer class in England. 'The centre of interest was Hampstead Heath, where the students painted daily. Chase rented a furnished studio in Chelsea for himself.

As in all the countries he visited with his pupils, he took them to the studios of the painters, an experience invaluable to his students, as aside from the interest and stimulation of coming in contact with the painters themselves, it gave them the opportunity to see their studies and half-finished pictures, an object-lesson they could have had in no other way. He escorted his entire class to the studios of Edwin Abbey, Frank Brangwyn, Alma-Tadema, Lavery, Shannon and Sargent.

One of Abbey's Shakespearian subjects was in the studio uncompleted at the time, and Chase, at Abbey's request, criticized it. Abbey was also at work upon a coronation picture for which the Queen was posing. Her gown lay upon a chair in the studio and was the cause of great excitement among the feminine pupils.

A pupil in the class that summer also recalls interesting pilgrimages to the galleries with their master, his enthusiasm over the work on his favorites and his scornful wit expended upon others, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites. He found his greatest pleasure in the National Gallery, which he used to say was probably the finest collection of pictures in the world."

To be continued

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