DOI Heft:
No. 93 (December, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Knaufft, Ernest: An American painter, William M. Chase
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19786#0174
W. M. Chase
tion of Mr. Chase's brush work and colour sense, for his compositions. At the Society of American
the productions of the two men are somewhat similar. Artists, in 1898, he exhibited his picture called
If Mr. Chase chooses as his subject a young woman Ring Toss, which we reproduce. The captious
in a Japanese kimono, sitting near a dressing-table, might insist that in similar subjects the Dutch
there will certainly be found, in his finished painters respected their dramatis persona: more
picture, the same rich notes in the wood of the than does Mr. Chase, that the Dutchman's still-
dressing-table, the same melting greys in the reflec- life surrounds his figures, while Mr. Chase's figures
tion in the mirror, and the same suave, warm tones are but adjuncts to his still-life. But so far as the
in the kimono as are found in the work of the actual aspect of things is concerned, the floor and
famous Belgian; and, it must be confessed, it the ring toss could hardly be rendered with greater
sometimes may, like Stevens's work, challenge veracity in so painter-like a manner,
criticism as regards the face, for that may partake Indefatigable industry is a cardinal trait of Mr.
of the still-life textures of the accessories, and will, Chase, and it is not surprising that in the great
perhaps, have little attraction for the average spec- volume of work he has produced in the last
tator because of its lack of symmetrical beauty, twenty-five years there are evidences of distinct
though the art-lover will covet it for its beauty of periods, his work of to-day representing a marked
pigment. contrast to that which he first sent from Munich.
Indeed, the still-life element in Mr. Chase's We will venture to call his present work his middle
painting, while, perhaps, Spanish in treatment, is style, being confident that he is yet to develop a riper
thoroughly Dutch in the important part it plays in phase of his talent. His early style may be called
the Munich style, howbeit
more colourful than the
average Munich work, but
containing, none the less, a
trace of bitumen—a forcing
of shadows akin to the over-
emphasised intonation of
elocution-school graduates.
In his style of to-day this
bitumen vein is entirely
eliminated, and modelling
by colour has been rein-
forced by a quality that is
hard to designate. This
new quality is not chiaro-
scuro, it is rather a modern
substitute for it, variously
described as unity, ensem-
ble, and, in landscape
painting, as " enveloppe "
and harmony. In Mr.
Chase's Portrait of Miss
F. de Forest, which was
shown at the Portrait Ex-
hibition at New York in
1898, we find this quality
dominant; the figure and
background, hair and flesh,
every detail, every acces-
sory, fit into a decorative
scheme, yet a scheme
wholly unlike the decora-
tive schemes of De La
' portrait of my mother " by w. m. chase Gandara and Alexander,
tion of Mr. Chase's brush work and colour sense, for his compositions. At the Society of American
the productions of the two men are somewhat similar. Artists, in 1898, he exhibited his picture called
If Mr. Chase chooses as his subject a young woman Ring Toss, which we reproduce. The captious
in a Japanese kimono, sitting near a dressing-table, might insist that in similar subjects the Dutch
there will certainly be found, in his finished painters respected their dramatis persona: more
picture, the same rich notes in the wood of the than does Mr. Chase, that the Dutchman's still-
dressing-table, the same melting greys in the reflec- life surrounds his figures, while Mr. Chase's figures
tion in the mirror, and the same suave, warm tones are but adjuncts to his still-life. But so far as the
in the kimono as are found in the work of the actual aspect of things is concerned, the floor and
famous Belgian; and, it must be confessed, it the ring toss could hardly be rendered with greater
sometimes may, like Stevens's work, challenge veracity in so painter-like a manner,
criticism as regards the face, for that may partake Indefatigable industry is a cardinal trait of Mr.
of the still-life textures of the accessories, and will, Chase, and it is not surprising that in the great
perhaps, have little attraction for the average spec- volume of work he has produced in the last
tator because of its lack of symmetrical beauty, twenty-five years there are evidences of distinct
though the art-lover will covet it for its beauty of periods, his work of to-day representing a marked
pigment. contrast to that which he first sent from Munich.
Indeed, the still-life element in Mr. Chase's We will venture to call his present work his middle
painting, while, perhaps, Spanish in treatment, is style, being confident that he is yet to develop a riper
thoroughly Dutch in the important part it plays in phase of his talent. His early style may be called
the Munich style, howbeit
more colourful than the
average Munich work, but
containing, none the less, a
trace of bitumen—a forcing
of shadows akin to the over-
emphasised intonation of
elocution-school graduates.
In his style of to-day this
bitumen vein is entirely
eliminated, and modelling
by colour has been rein-
forced by a quality that is
hard to designate. This
new quality is not chiaro-
scuro, it is rather a modern
substitute for it, variously
described as unity, ensem-
ble, and, in landscape
painting, as " enveloppe "
and harmony. In Mr.
Chase's Portrait of Miss
F. de Forest, which was
shown at the Portrait Ex-
hibition at New York in
1898, we find this quality
dominant; the figure and
background, hair and flesh,
every detail, every acces-
sory, fit into a decorative
scheme, yet a scheme
wholly unlike the decora-
tive schemes of De La
' portrait of my mother " by w. m. chase Gandara and Alexander,