William Merritt Chase: Self-Portrait for Richmond, Indiana, Pt. 1

"William Merritt Chase"
by John Singer Sargent

A wonderful self-portrait of William Merritt Chase hangs in the Richmond Art Museum in Richmond, Indiana. The story of this painting is a most illuminating and characteristic Chase story. It begins in this wise:

"Mr. Warner Leeds, a native of Richmond, Indiana, while traveling in Europe in 1912, met an American artist who suggested that the museum ought to have a portrait of Chase, since he was an Indiana man. Mr. Leeds agreed to donate half the price of a portrait head if the Art Association of Richmond would assume the other half. He thought $500 would be a sufficient sum to offer for it. The board accepted his offer and assigned Ella Bond Johnston the pleasant task of calling at Mr. Chase's studio to ask for the portrait.

As she explains: 'I had previously called at the Chase studio several times to secure loans of his paintings for circuit exhibitions. The first visit I made about 1906. When I went up to his studio he was standing in the open door with his big palette and maulstick looking so much like the Sargent portrait of him, which I had just seen that I could not help exclaiming, 'Oh, you do look like the portrait.' He said only 'Yes' and ushered me into the room in courtly fashion. 

Haltingly I told him I was collecting paintings for a traveling exhibit to be shown in Western cities, mainly in Indiana. At the mention of Indiana Mr. Chase's face showed a curious smile and as I enlarged on the growing interest in art in that State his smile broadened until I felt that he was inwardly scoffing at the idea, and feeling annoyed I said to him, 'Perhaps you are not interested in art as far west as Indiana.' At which he laughed outright, but quickly sobered and said, 'My dear lady, you evidently do not know that I was born and brought up in Indiana.' After this we became good friends and he let me take three of his canvases for my show and lent paintings annually thereafter.

So it was an easy and pleasant duty to call at Mr. Chase's Fourth Avenue studio to ask for a portrait, about a 16 x 20 canvas, for which we could pay $500. Of course he would do it. He was delighted. He would do several heads for he must do them anyway for his children and when I came to New York the next year I could choose the one I liked the best.'" (to be continued)

(Excerpts from "The Art Movement in Richmond, Indiana: A History" by Ella Bond Johnston. With thanks to Richmond Art Museum director, Shaun Dingwerth, for sending me a copy of this story.)

William Merritt Chase: Benefactor

"The Yellow Gown" by William Merritt Chase

"William Merritt Chase was a generous patron of the arts, buying not only the pictures of arrived artists but those of his own pupils before they had achieved recognition, thus conferring it upon them.

Chase's assistance to his pupil C. W. Hawthorne in his beginnings was of the greatest value to him. He also encouraged and helped his Philadelphia pupil, Leopold Seiffert. He had much to do with starting Schreyvogel on the path to success. During his presidency of the Society of American Artists he called the attention of the jurors to the work of this young painter, who had not previously met with recognition. The fact that Schreyvogel's pictures were not only admitted but that one of them received the prize at that exhibition made a turning point in his career.

He was also more than generous in his exchanges with other painters. Henry Poore tells of his own experience. On the opening day of Chase's exhibition at the National Arts Club Poore ran across him. After greeting his fellow artist Chase inquired, with a gesture that swept the room: 'Well, have you made your choice?' Mr. Poore, rather overcome by this generosity selected a small sketch, but Chase protested, 'I had thought you might want this,' indicating a splendid fish still life. What was more, he insisted upon presenting it.

A pupil in one of his European classes remembers how Chase once offered to exchange with a European painter who was so far removed from his class as an artist that Chase's act could only seem to the outsider a condescension. Chase selected a little sketch of this painter's in which his kindness found something to admire and gave him in return a beautiful fish picture. When the pupil protested, Chase's reply was, 'Why not? When you make a gift give your best.' There spoke the innate aristocracy of art."

To be continued

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

William Merritt Chase: His Favorite Painters

"Memories" by William Merritt Chase

"In defining the qualities of a great work of art, William Merritt Chase said that it must contain three things: 'truth, quality and interesting treatment.' 

His own collection of pictures at one time included as many as six hundred valuable canvases, including examples of Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens, Cuyp, Cluet, Corot, Vollon, Daubigny, Ribot, Manet, Roybet, Gericault, Couture, Jules Dupre, Villegas, Isabey, Jacques, Boudin, Bastien-Lepage, Georges Michel, La Touche, Fromentin, Alfred Stevens, Carolus Duran, El Greco, Ribera, Fortuny, Sorolla, Mancini, Boldini, De Nittis, Raffaeli, Martin Rico, Leibl, Von Lenbach, Ziem, Hans Makart, Brangwyn, Sargent, Whistler, La Farge, Blakelock, Duveneck, Frank Currier, William Hunt, Twachtman, George Innes, Blum, Wyatt Eaton, Gedney Bunce, Irving Wiles and F. C. Frieseke.

Among the old masters his particular favorites were Velazquez and Hals. After them he valued most, Rembrandt, Titian, Holbein, Tintoretto, De Hooghe, Vermeer, Chardin and El Greco.

Chase not only introduced America to the works of Manet, since he was instrumental in influencing Alden Weir to buy two for the Metropolitan Museum, but he had much to do with familiarizing the American public with the name of Greco. When the Metropolitan Museum was considering the purchase of the Greco 'Nativity,' Daniel Chester French sent for Chase as an expert upon Spanish art to decide whether or not the work was genuine. 

Chase was also responsible for the purchase of El Greco's 'Crucifixion' for the Wilstach Collection in Philadelphia. One day soon after this picture had been hung, Chase, who was standing before it in the gallery, was questioned by a gentleman who was also studying the canvas. 'Can you tell me,' he anxiously inquired, 'if the artist had any authority for making the figure of the Christ so emaciated? And why should a picture so unpleasant be hung upon these walls? Who is responsible for its presence here?' Chase turned upon his questioner and retorted, 'I am proud and happy to state that I am the person responsible, and would have you understand, sir, that you are standing before the work of a great master!' With these words the painter made a dramatic exit. It was an outrage that rankled in his mind for long afterward."

To be continued

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

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.)

William Merritt Chase:

"Still Life with Fish" by William Merritt Chase

"In the summer of 1913 William Merritt Chase again had a class in Italy, this time in Venice. It was his last European class. The story of the summer he tells in his many letters to his wife.

One from Venice mentions a visit to Madame Fortuny [widow of Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny, who had lived and worked in Italy]. 'She is an old, well-preserved lady of seventy-three. She owns a small palace here where she has lived for a number of years. At the time of her husband's sale after his death at Paris she brought back many of his studies and many of the fine stuffs. The studio and begun pictures are splendid and the stuffs are magnificent. It was a rare treat which I am sorry you could not have enjoyed with me. She asked me to come again to see some etchings by Fortuny and some by Goya. Of course I will go. I feel a fresh spell of enthusiasm after seeing the things.'

A pupil in Chase's class who went with him to visit Madame Fortuny says that the great artist's widow had a real understanding of art and expressed a great desire to see Chase's work, but as she was old and not very strong she did not feel able to make the journey to his studio. Determined that if Madame Fortuny wanted to see his pictures, she should. He filled a gondola with his work - Venetian sketches, fish pictures and portrait heads - and gave the Spanish painter's widow a private view at her own house. Both Chase's work and the gracefulness of his act delighted Madame Fortuny inexpressibly.

Another letter concerning his unfinished picture records a typical painter state of mind at that stage of his work. 'While I don't know what it will look like tomorrow, I feel now that I've got something that you will care for. I will tell you in my next letter how I find it.' Before he concludes he acknowledges with profuse gratitude the receipt of some homemade butterscotch.

One of his greatest pleasures during those summers in Europe was the buying of presents for his wife and eight children. 'Won't Mary be lovely in that little blue coat?' he would exclaim or 'That flame-colored lining on Dorothy, eh?' and 'That blue and gold scarf will just suit Helen.' 'He bought things like a prince,' said a pupil who was with him on some of his shopping expeditions. 'Nothing was too good for them. The price was not even to be asked when he thought he had found something they would like.'"

To be continued

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

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.) 

William Merritt Chase: Fish for Hire

"An English Cod" by William Merritt Chase

"It was in 1904 that William Merritt Chase painted his 'English Cod,' now owned by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, and this is how that particular cod came to be painted: Passing a fishmonger's shop one day, Chase saw a large and opalescent cod lying upon a marble slab. He stood for some time gazing at it, priced it, decided that it was rather an expensive and perishable bit of still-life material and continued on his errand, but he could not forget the fish.

Its subtle color haunted his dreams and the spell of its beauty drew him back to the fishmonger's stall. He explained to the owner of the shop the nature of his interest, and suggested, since it was not his desire to dispose of the fish in the usual and permanent manner, that perhaps he might rent it for a few hours.

The fishmonger, since it was Saturday and a half-holiday, hesitated at first lest he lose the sale of his fish. After a short dicker, however, he agreed to rent the cod to the artist, and Chase went away with his prize, promising to pay for it if he kept it over the allotted time.

When the fish was not returned on time, the fishmonger sent an emissary to the painter's studio to find out what was going on. His report, whatever it was, evidently aroused curiosity, for in a little while the fishmonger himself appeared on the scene. He came in so quietly that the painter did not hear him at first. When discovered, the man replied most respectfully, 'Don't 'urry, sir; it's getting on fine.'

When the last brush stroke was planted, the painter turned to the owner of the cod, and, generous as always, suggested that he ought to buy it since the fishman might by now have lost all chance of selling his fish before Sunday. But the fishmonger, an art lover in his own fashion, said that he would take his chances and would accept nothing more than the two hours' hire for his fish!

The next year when Case was in London on his way to Spain, finding himself in the vicinity of the fishmonger's shop, went in and asked the man if he remembered him. The fishmonger replied at once, 'Oh, yes, you are the American artist who painted my cod.' "I thought you might like to hear about it,' said Chase. 'I sold that picture to a museum for four hundred pounds.'

When the generous Chase offered to give the fishmonger an honorarium on the sale, the honest Britisher flatly refused. He would not take any more of the painter's money, but would very much like a photograph of the fish picture to hang in his shop, a request which, of course, delighted the painter, who brought the photo the following summer."

To be continued

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