subjects. His interest shifted from urban subjects to the seaside of eastern Long
Island, his wife and children often interspersed amid the grasses and dunes (see
Idle Hours, page 51).
Chase left his position at the Art Students League in 1896—founding the
Chase School of Art (later the New York School of Art and, now, Parsons School
of Design) the same year. Th e mother of Dora Wheeler, one of Chase’s fi rst private
students and subject of one of his greatest portraits (see Portrait of Dora Wheeler,
above left), remembered him as “the most generous of teachers, not only giving
exhaustively of his stored knowledge of how to do things, but fostering as well the
will to do it.” In 1902, Chase hired the younger Robert Henri to teach at his New
York school and, though the two artists shared interests in Hals, Velázquez and
Manet, their charismatic styles represented diff erent generations. Chase’s tailored
elegance and emphasis on refi ned draftsmanship was soon eclipsed by Henri’s
exhortations to his students to paint the urban world with unvarnished truth. In
retrospect, both approaches look romantic, but the balance between America’s two
most prominent art teachers soon faltered. Henri won over the young students, and
Chase left his own school in 1907.
Chase continued teaching, took on portrait commissions and traveled widely.
He taught summer classes in California and Europe and bought an Italian villa.
Following his death, in 1917 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York held a
major retrospective of his paintings.
“A Law Unto Himself ”
Financial necessity compelled Chase to take on commissioned portrait work, but
he was at his best when painting subjects of domestic intimacy. Paintings of his
family (see Tired, above right) or models of his own choosing (Th e Young Orphan,
opposite) permitted greater freedom of compositional experimentation as well as
more sympathetic responses to the personalities of his sitters.
ABOVE LEFT: Dora Wheeler was
one of the fi rst women to study
privately with Chase at his Tenth
Street studio. Though the size of
Portrait of Dora Wheeler (1882–83;
oil on canvas, 62^55 ⁄ 8 x65^1 ⁄ 8 ) indicates
it was intended as a showpiece,
and perhaps an advertisement for
Chase’s skills as a portraitist, the
blazing colors separate the image
from traditional portrait prototypes.THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, GIFT OF
MRS. BOUDINOT KEITH IN MEMORY OF
MR. AND MRS. J. H. WADEABOVE RIGHT: A charming canvas,
Tired (ca 1894; oil on panel,
13x9½) was painted with great
rapidity. All brushstrokes appear
to radiate from the head of
Chase’s daughter.PRIVATE COLLECTIONSee the Show
“William Merritt Chase: A Modern
Master” will be on view at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
until January 16.
52 artistsmagazine.com
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