Frank Swift Chase (1886 - 1958)
A prodigious legacy. Justly venerated paintings. A mere seven year ascendency to acclaimed exhibitions among the most prestigious art institutions in America. Founder of art associations and colonies. Outdoorsman. Teacher. The undisputed Dean of the Nantucket Art Colony, Frank Swift Chase’s far-reaching influence is perhaps best articulated by Robert Frazier, in his article, Grounded at Sea Level: Frank Swift Chase on Nantucket published by the Nantucket Historical Association; Historic Nantucket, Summer 2007 (Vol. 56, No. 3)
Chase’s paintings capture an emotional tension typical of the American Naturalist tradition. Confident brushwork energizes wet-to-wet impasto, projecting authoritative color in a natural landscape, through a Tonalist’s softly veiled light and shadow.
“[His] love of color meant love of paint draped like vines over forest or field.” – Gary Irving; Frank Swift Chase Retrospective Exhibition, Vose Galleries, Boston, MA, 1985.
Through his energy, vision, fraternity and teachings, Chase’s influence on the history of American Art is significant. – Carolyn Walsh
Exhibitions
1918 – 1923 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1919 – 1923 Corcoran Gallery
1920, 1924 Newport Artists Association (first prize)
1921 Salmagundi Art Club
National Academy of Design
1922 Art Institute of Chicago (Peabody Prize)
Eastman School of Music
Rochester Memorial Art Gallery (New York)
Philadelphia Arts Council
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Herron Art Institute
1923 Indiana Artists Association
Carnegie Institute
Peabody Art Gallery, Baltimore
1924 Art Directors Club (medal)
1928 San Diego Fine Arts Gallery
1953 Kenneth Taylor Gallery, Nantucket
1954 Nantucket Artists Association.
Woodstock Artists Association
Springfield Artists Association
Recent Examples at Auction










- Joan Albaugh
- Ethel Anderson
- William D. Appleton
- Clifford Warren Ashley
- John Austin
- Milton Avery
- Solon Francis Montecello Badger
- James Francis Barker
- Doris & Richard Beer
- Eugene Louis Boudin
- Alfred Thompson Bricher
- Albert Bross
- Robert Bushong
- Polly Bushong
- James Edward Buttersworth
- Ralph Eugene Cahoon
- Martha Cahoon
- Nikita Carpenko
- Lincoln J. Ceely
- Frederick S Chadwick
- Rodney Charman
- Frank Swift Chase
- Leander M Churbuck
- Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin
- Anne Ramsdell Congdon
- Colin Campbell Cooper
- Laura Cooper
- Mellie Cooper
- Frank Corso
- James Cromartie
- Roy Cross
- Vu Cao Dam
- William R. Davis
- Gene Davis
- Molly Dee
- Donald Demers
- John Devaney
- William Duffy
- Lawrence Charmichael Earle
- Henry Stephens Eddy
- Alan J. Eddy
- Virginia Bargar Evans
- José Fabri-Canti
- John Falato
- George Gardner Fish
- Annie Barker Folger
- James Walter Folger
- Stephen Gibbs
- André Gisson
- Sybil Goldsmith
- Emile Albert Gruppe
- Marilyn Guerinot
- Mauritz Frederik Hendrick de Haas
- Davis Hall
- Kerry Hallam
- James Harrington
- James Hathaway
- Lowell Herrero
- Jason Emerson Herron
- Philip Hicken
- George Frank Higgins
- G.S. Hill
- Megan Hinton
- Emily Hoffmeier
- Alfred Heber Hutty
- George Inness
- Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobson
- Edgar W. Jenney
- Theodore Jeremenko
- Eastman Johnson
- Illya Kagan
- Michael Keane
- William Keith
- David Kooharian
- Kenneth Layman
- David Lazarus
- George Lear
- Richard Hayley Lever
- John Lochtefeld
- Harriet Lord
- Richard Loud
- William W. Lowe
- Michael Lynch
- William Starbuck Macy
- William Ferdinand Macy
- Wendell Macy
- Aletha Macy
- George Herbert McCord
- Keith McDaniel
- Joseph McGurl
- Maggie Meredith
- Addison Thomas Millar
- Jan L. Munro
- Mary Sarg Murphy
- Mark Myers
- Tom Nicholas
- Reginald Eugene Nickerson
- Michael A. Palmer
- Margaret Jordan Patterson
- Jan Pawlowski
- Edgar Payne
- C. Robert Perrin
- Helen Sharp Potter
- Jane Brewster Reid
- José Formoso Reyes
- Volney Allan Richardson
- Forrest Anderson Rodts
- Sergio Roffo
- Lenka Rubenstein
- Elizabeth Saltonstall
- Andrew Jackson Sandsbury
- Tony Sarg
- Issac Sheffield
- Andrew Shunney
- Henry Pember Smith
- Lillian Gertrude Smith
- H. Stadler
- Richard Stalter
- Robert Stark Jr.
- William Pierce Stubbs
- Mara Superior
- Ruth Haviland Sutton
- Ferdinand Sylvaro
- Anthony Thieme
- Tim Thompson
- Roy Tidmarsh
- Yasemin Tomakan
- Katie Trinkle-Legge
- Isabelle Hollister Tuttle
- Emma H. Van Pelt
- William Welch
- Orrin Augustine White
- Paul Whitten
- Paul Willer
- Sid Willis
- Bert Wright
- James Wyer
- Julian E. Yates
- Lori Zummo