William Merritt Chase - More than a Painter of Fish


Chase loved to demonstrate the painting of fish for his art students. He would confidently work in the colors with broad strokes of his brush including deep shades of color combined with both the lighter shades of blue and silver tones. Amazingly enough, he usually managed to complete the painting as well as the demonstration in time for his class to break for lunch.

During his lifetime in addition to his still-lifes, Chase was also known for his landscapes, his seascapes, and his portraits. He was without a doubt the most influential teacher of American art in his day and his influence continues on to the present. His students included Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Joseph Stella, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and Rockwell Kent. Each of these artists went on to establish their own mode of painting and often to embrace newer more revolutionary styles of art in opposition to the traditional art Chase advocated, but they all learned the importance of technique, exactness, and discipline from this great teacher.

Chase was a poor businessman and didn't bother to catalog his own art; consequently the majority of it didn't sell well during his lifetime even though he was known in the art community in both America and Europe. After his death, his art fell out of favor and it is only in the last twenty-five years that it has begun to receive much notice.

When you go to a fine art museum, look around. Since Chase was a prolific painter, you will probably have the opportunity to view at least one of his paintings. Watch for his populated seascapes, portraits that capture the personality of the sitter, and his most slippery fish. Perhaps you too will come to appreciate this significant, though temporarily forgotten, figure in American art history.

Copyright 2000 Patricia Dake

Sources:

A Genteel Bohemian by Keith L. Bryant, Jr., University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1991.

William Merritt Chase ~ Summers at Shinnecock 1891-1902 by D. Scott Atkinson and Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., National Gallery of Art, 1987.

William Merritt Chase by Ronald G. Pisano, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1979.

http://sunsite.auc.dk/cgfa/chase/index.h...

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?5400

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=...

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=...

The copyright of the article William Merritt Chase - More than a Painter of Fish in Famous Artists is owned by Tricia Dake. Permission to republish William Merritt Chase - More than a Painter of Fish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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