Frank Swift Chase (12 March 1886 – 3 July 1958) was an American

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

painter and a founder of the Woodstock Artists Association in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...

, the

art colony Art colonies are organic congregations of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, who are often drawn to areas of natural beauty, the prior existence of other artists, art schools there, or a lower cost of living. They are typically mission ...

Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

, and the Sarasota School of Art in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Education and training

Chase was born in

St Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, on 12 March 1886. The fourth child of Grace (née Metcalfe) and Charles Denison Chase, he attended public

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

and

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

in St Louis. Despite a

mathematical Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

mind, he did not progress to

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

, instead working as an assistant in his father's

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

at the

Aluminum Company of America Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

Bauxite, Arkansas Bauxite is a city in Saline County, Arkansas, United States. Located within Central Arkansas, the city is named for bauxite, the source ore for aluminum, which was found in abundant quantities in the area and became a source of aluminium refining. ...

. His father was an

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

noted among the pioneers of experimentation with the use of

nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG) (alternative spelling nitroglycerine), also known as trinitroglycerol (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless or pale yellow, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

. In his early twenties he traveled to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to join his elder brother, Edward Leigh Chase, at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

, and later followed him again to ASL's Art League School of Landscape Painting at Woodstock, where he studied under L. Birge Harrison and John F. Carlson in 1909. The Chase brothers, both gifted artists, were early members of the Woodstock artist's colony, whose participants worked and lived in hand-made Catskill Mountain cabins as part of Ralph Whitehead's experiment with

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', which describes a fictional island soci ...

living at Byrdcliffe, the

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

settlement nestled in the slopes above the town.

Teacher and founder

A decade later, in 1919, Chase was one of the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

s of the Woodstock Artists' Association, along with

Andrew Dasburg Andrew Michael Dasburg (4 May 1887 – 13 August 1979) was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism". Biography Dasburg was born in 1887 in Paris. He emigrated from Germany to New York City with ...

, Carl Eric Lindin,

Henry Lee McFee Henry Lee McFee (April 14, 1886 – March 19, 1953) was a pioneer American cubist painter and a prominent member of the Woodstock artists colony. Biography McFee was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1886. From 1902 to 1905, he attended Kemper Mil ...

, and his former teacher John Carlson. The following year he summered on

Nantucket Island Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined cou ...

, where he established his first

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

. From 1920 onward, Chase was the leading teacher of

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

there for three decades. Dubbed "the

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

of Nantucket artists" by the Artists Association of Nantucket, he was largely responsible for the development of that

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

as a true art colony. Among Chase's most important legacies were his students, including many who became renowned painters themselves:

Elizabeth Saltonstall Elizabeth Saltonstall (born Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, July 26, 1900; died there May 10, 1990) was an American artist who used stone lithography and painting to depict the natural world, particularly that of her summer home of Nantucket. Salt ...

, Isabelle Hollister Tuttle, Ruth Haviland Sutton, Emily Hoffmeier and Anne Ramsdell Congdon. Chase encouraged open-air painting classes, weather permitting, otherwise utilizing

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

cottages A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

along the waterfront, reminiscent of his own tutelage back in the mountain shanties of Woodstock. He helped to establish and nurture the Nantucket Artists Association, along with other influential local artists like

Pat Gardner Pat Gardner (born March 22, 1940, in Alpena, Michigan ) is a Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the 57th District since 2001. Committees She serves on the House Appropriations, Transportation, Higher Educati ...

, Sybil Goldsmith, Philip Burnham Hicken, Edgar Jenney, C. Robert Perrin and Tony Sarg. Although based in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, Woodstock and Nantucket, Chase traveled around the United States. He spent a two-year

stint A stint is one of several very small waders in the paraphyletic ''"Calidris"'' assemblage – often separated in ''Erolia'' – which in North America are known as peeps. They are Scolopacidae, scolopacid waders much similar in ecomor ...

in southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

during 1935 and 1936, painting the

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

outside

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

. In 1940, he founded the

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...

School of Art at

Longboat Key, Florida Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Ba ...

, where he taught periodically through 1952. Back in Woodstock, he taught and helped to promote such future notables as

Harvey Fite Harvey Fite (December 25, 1903 – May 9, 1976)
. ...

Anton Refregier Anton Refregier (March 20, 1905 – October 10, 1979) was a painter and muralist active in Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project commissions, and in teaching art. He was a Russian immigrant to the United States. Among his best-k ...

and Marko Vukovic.

Death

Chase died at the Benedictine Hospital in

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

, on 3 July 1958. He is buried among other family members in the Artists Cemetery in Woodstock.

Legacy

Chase's paintings are

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

s of the Northern Romantic tradition. Clearly influenced in his youth by

American Impressionism American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...

and Post-Impressionism, he became more faithful to nature as his

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

matured, many of his later landscapes evoking a spiritual kinship with earlier

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

masters like

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for hi ...

and

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for paintin ...

. His brother Edward Leigh Chase is the paternal grandfather of the actor

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

Exhibitions

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

, 1918–1923 *

Corcoran Gallery The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran ...

, 1919–1923; Newport Artists Association, 1920 and 1924 (first prize) * Salmagundi Art Club, 1921;

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

, 1921 *

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, 1922 (prize) *

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

, 1922; Rochester Memorial Art Gallery (New York), 1922; Philadelphia Arts Council, 1922 *

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...

, 1922; Herron Art Institute, 1922; Indiana Artists Association, 1923; Carnegie Institute, 1923; Peabody Art Gallery,

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, 1923 *

Art Directors Club The Art Directors Club of New York is an organization for art directors in New York City. It was founded in 1920, and has grown as an industry group, promoting art directors' work through exhibitions and awards, including the annual DESI award fo ...

, 1924 (medal); San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, 1928 *Woodstock Artists Association; Springfield Artists Association; Kenneth Taylor Galleries, Nantucket *1953; Artists Association of Nantucket, 1954.

Associations

*Member: Allied Artists Association, 1913 * Springfield Artists Association (Illinois) *

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Academy of Fine Arts, 1922 *Woodstock Artists Association, 1919 *Artists Association of Nantucket, 1945-1954.

Sources

*Woodstock Artists Association, permanent archives. *Nantucket Historical Association, archives. *''A Genealogy of David Latham Stevens and Richard Chase Stevens, (Volume IV)'', by D.L. Stevens. *The Nantucket ''Inquirer and Mirror''
"Grounded at Sea Level: Frank Swift Chase on Nantucket"
by Robert Frazier *Artists Association of Nantucket, permanent archives.

References

External links

"Grounded at Sea Level: Frank Swift Chase on Nantucket"
by Robert Frazier {{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Frank Swift 1886 births 1958 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Artists from Florida Artists from Massachusetts Art Students League of New York alumni American contemporary painters Painters from St. Louis People from the Catskills American realist painters Artists from Woodstock, New York 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists