Jessie Kalmbach Chase (November 22, 1879 – October 1970)[1][2][3] was a fine art painter based in Wisconsin.[4] Much of her work showing Wisconsin landscapes was inspired by the views available in her native Door County.[5]
Birth and early life
Jessie was born on November 22, 1879, in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin.[1] Her parents were Albert Kalmbach and Dora C. Higgins, who were married in 1878; Jessie had two sisters and a brother.[6][7][8] She married Wilfred Chase and lived with him in Madison.[9]
Career
Chase studied design at and graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago before becoming a stained glass window designer for an art glass company in Chicago;[10] in this work she would often prepare water color paintings to demonstrate the design before producing a window.[5] Her later work was in oils. She would spend time studying a scene in person then retreat to a studio to create the paintings saying that she did not want to simply copy nature, but wanted to show specific light situations and to avoid mosquitoes.[11]
In the 1920s she was a member of the Madison Art Guild, exhibiting works in the area.[12] Her work was also distributed through the Madison Art association to galleries statewide, such as for an exhibit at the Sawyer Foundation in Oshkosh in 1926[13] and at the Milwaukee Journal's Gallery of Wisconsin Art in 1929.[14] In the 1930s, as her body of work grew, Chase had individual exhibitions at museums across the state such as at the Little Gallery in Manitowoc in 1936.[10][15]
In 1933-34, she was employed by the Works Progress Administration's Public Works of Art Project.[1] Chase created murals for the Madison Public Library and the Bank of Sturgeon Bay.[1][16] For some of the larger pieces she created in this decade, Chase worked in a mixture of cement and oil paint to create "cement-frescoes" such as were created for the entrance to Madison West High School and some civic structures in Fort Atkinson.[17]
Death and legacy
She died in 1970 in Green Bay.[1] Some of Chase's work was added to the permanent collection at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay.[18] Two of her murals were also installed at the Door County Library in 2010.[1]
^"United States Social Security Death Index database". FamilySearch. Retrieved March 5, 2016. citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
^"United States Census, 1910, database with images". FamilySearch. Retrieved March 5, 2016. Jessie D Kalmbach in household of Albert Kalmbach, Sturgeon Bay Ward 1, Door, Wisconsin, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 53, sheet 3A, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,375,718.
^"Wisconsin State Census, 1905, database with images". FamilySearch. Retrieved March 5, 2016.. Jessie Kalmbach in household of Albert Kalmbach, Sturgeon Bay city, ward 1, Door, Wisconsin; citing p. 295, line 49, State Historical Society, Madison; FHL microfilm 1,020,445.
