Chicago Artists in the 20th Century
Chicago Tribune, January 31, 1985
Richard A. Chase (1892-1985)
Richard A. Chase, 93, an artist for more than 60 years in Chicago, was noted for his painting of Chicago scenes. In 1981 the Chicago Historical Society held an exhibit of 30 of his works, titled “Chicago Portraits.” Four of the paintings are part of an exhibit there of “Water Places” around the city.
Chicago Daily News art critic C.J. Bulliet wrote in 1937:
- His aim is to paint Chicago and to paint it recognizable only as Chicago and not any other community in America or on Earth. He seeks out what is typical. And, when he finds it, he strives with all the skill he has as a draftsman, with all the colors he has on his palette and with neither fears nor repression to portray it.
Paintings depict Chicago bridges, construction, street scenes and the lakefront. They portray the wind blowing skirts on Michigan Avenue, circus tents being put up near Soldier Field and a street scene showing seven types of transportation in the 1930s.
His paintings of Chicago were on exhibit at the A Century of Progress World`s Fair in 1933.
Two of his works at the Historical Society are of the construction of the Wabash Avenue bridge, one is of the building of the Lake Shore Drive bridge and one is of the boathouse at Humboldt Park.
His attention to detail and devotion to realism are apparent in his work. Steel girders with well-defined nuts and bolts fit into a pattern and reflect on his earlier career, in which he drew realistic and practical illustrations for advertising.
Such Chicago scenes were more of hobby than a business for Mr. Chase, who considered himself principally a portrait artist.
Mr. Chase, a native of Columbus, Kan., where he was valedictorian of his high school class, worked four years at a soda fountain so he could study for a year at the Art Institute of Chicago. He then took a job with a poster company and worked in advertising.
He was in the Army in World War I and was to go overseas on the day the Armistice was signed. He was determined to become a more serious artist and returned to Chicago to study seven more years at the Art Institute.
Timid at first, he painted only in black and white but slowly added colors until his fearless use of color became a trademark.
JEWELS OF A CHICAGO NIGHT
The faithful reflection of colors by the old Chicago river has inspired Richard A. Chase, Chicago artist, to picture night in this remarkable city with vivid hues. The water color, the impression of which are summed up in the title, “Night Lights,” is one of a score or more in which the artist interprets the spirit and atmosphere of the western metropolis in its contemporary phases.
Chicago Sunday Tribune
November 23, 1930
A THANKSGIVING VISION
Vivid red steelwork lashing out toward the skie is a picture that has in it
elements for heartfelt thanksgiving in this year of 1930. Artist Richard A. Chase, whose interpretations of Chicago’s spirit of energy are numerous, sees the city moving “Onward and Upward” (the title) despite all discouragements
Chicago Sunday Tribune
November 23, 1930
THE DRAMA OF CHICAGO: A PAINTER VISUALIZES A GREAT CITY’S PULSING POWER-Two more water colors by Richard A. Chase, reproduced here, amplify the impressions of metropolitan vigor presented on this page last Sunday. In “State Street Bridge” is symbolized the city’s conquest of an ancient barrier-the river-and more. Like a great back drop for this triumph is the vista in the background, of the old giving place to the new, of citadels of commerce rising to ever-loftier heights, of tremendous mass and power in this Chicago which to the world is a material expression of youth, virility, and restless, surging energy
Chicago Sunday Tribune
30 Nov 1930
CHANGE: WHERE DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION MEET
“Rush and Superior”, Mr. Chase’s geographical title for this scene, is the artist’s story of the retreat of the age of brick and mortar before that of concrete and steel. Once sparkling and vibrant with the gayest amenities of social life. this scene was to other times what the gold coast is to ours; today the pneumatic riveter, putting together the newest near north side skyscraper, sounds its doom.
Chicago Sunday Tribune
30 Nov 1930
PILLARS OF FIRE BY NIGHT
In “Steel Mills at Night” Richard A. Chase dips his brush into the fiaming colors that light the darkened sky of Chicago’s far south side, interpreting the roaring, teething activity of one of the world’s leading steel centers. Here. in the production of the national basic commodity, is one of the essential factors of the city’s greatness; and here the apotheosis of the surging power for which Chicago is known to the far corners of the earth.
Chicago Sunday Tribune
February 1, 1931
THE FINISHED PRODUCT OF THE STEEL MILLS
Two paintings by Richard A. Chase, depicting the building of the city’s bridges, tell a fascinating story of Chicago at work. It is a story of lusty, brawny building for the future, of material fundamentals strong and beautiful in their adaptation to use, of a city still young and gloriously alive rearing its physical world about it, even though taking its place among world centers in esthetic expressions.
Chicago Sunday Tribune
February 1, 1931
ATMOSPHERE
Gifted with one of the globe’s most variable climates, Chicago is a temperamental beauty. Now it is seen in somber gray; now in blue; now sharply etched against a luminous sky; and now and then come rare sunsets that suffuse the very air with incredible hues of red, gold, and heliotrope. One of the elusive, colorful moments, in which Monet might have found inspiration, has been caught in this unusual study in oild, “Blue Silhouette.”
From a painting by Richard A. Chase, after a photograph by Edward McGill of the Tribune staff.
Chicago Sunday Tribune
March 22, 1931
INDUSTRY
Turning to another pictorial aspect of Chicago, one in which the undiscerning might see nothing but ugliness, Mr. Chase looka on at the building of one of the city’s bridges and interprets the dynamic power found there in a canvas that he calla “Wabash Avenue Viaduct.” As seen by the artist, there is significant drama here. Readers will remember other metropolitan studies by Mr. Chaae which have been reproduced In color in these pages.
Chicago Sunday Tribune
March 22, 1931