In 1868, Harry Chase joined the atelier of displaced Southern aristocrat and itinerant portrait painter, James Reeve Stuart, who kept his studio on Olive Street in St.

[5] In 1879, Chase changed masters and became the protégé of Hendrik Willem Mesdag, the great Dutch marine painter, in Scheveningen, the Netherlands.

[5] At the end of 1879, Chase returned to St. Louis and held another even more successful solo show and auction, selling a total of 64 works.

In 1885, he won the Hallgarten Prize for his painting New York Harbor, North River, now part of the collection of the Katzen Arts Center of the American University, Washington D.C.[4]<[1] Harry Chase was elected a member of the following artists' societies and clubs during his career: At the end of 1885, Chase became insane and his career came to an abrupt end.

[8] From 1886 to 1889, Chase was treated for his ailments in both Poughkeepsie, New York, at the Hudson River State Asylum for the Insane, and later in Sewanee, Tennessee, under the treatment of Dr. William M. Harlow.