Biography

He was born in New York City to John Winthrop Chanler and Margaret Astor Ward, in a sea of wealthy and interconnected Hudson River families that included the Astors

Astor family

The Astor family is a Anglo-American business family of German descent notable for their prominence in business, society, and politics.-Founding family members:...

, Delanos

Delano family

The progenitor of the Delano family in the Americas was Philippe de Lannoy whose family name was anglicized to Delano. The 19-year-old Pilgrim of Flemish descent arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts on November 9, 1621 on the second Pilgrim ship, Fortune...

, Winthrops and Stuyvesants. Chanler had nine brothers and sisters, including politician Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler

Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler

Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler was a New York lawyer and politician.- Early life :He was the son of John Winthrop Chanler and Margaret Astor Ward. Chanler had nine brothers and sisters, including the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler and the soldier and explorer William Astor Chanler...

 and the soldier and explorer William Astor Chanler. His sister Margaret Livingston Chanler served as a nurse with the American Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

 during the Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

. Chanler's older brother John Armstrong Chanler married novelist Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy

Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy

Amélie Louise Rives Troubetzkoy was an American novelist and poet. Rives wrote at least twenty-four volumes of fiction, numerous uncollected poems, and Herod and Marianne , a verse drama. In 1888, she published novel The Quick or the Dead?, her most famous and popular work that sold 300,000 copies...

. Chanler and his siblings became orphans after the death of their mother in 1875 and their father in 1877, both to pneumonia. The children were raised at their parents' estate in Rokeby (Barrytown, New York)

Rokeby (Barrytown, New York)

Rokeby, also known as La Bergerie, is a historic estate and federally recognized historic district located at Barrytown in Dutchess County, New York. It includes seven contributing buildings and one contributing structures. The original section of the main house was built 1811–1815...

.

A designer and muralist, Chanler received much of his art training in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 at the École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...

, and there his most famous work, titled "Giraffes", was completed in 1905 and later purchased by the French Government.

Robert D. Coe, who studied with him, described Chanler as being "eccentric and almost bizarre."

Chanler specialized in painted screens and was a member of the National Society of Mural Painters

National Society of Mural Painters

The National Society of Mural Painters is an American artists' organization founded in 1895, originally known as The Mural Painters. The charter of the society is to advance the techniques and standards for the design and execution of mural art for the enrichment of architecture in the United...

. A ceiling mural of buffaloes painted by Chanler is in the Coe House in Brookville, New York

Brookville, New York

The Village of Brookville is a village located within the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village population was 3,465....

. He was also a member of the Architectural League of New York

Architectural League of New York

The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines"....

. His work was featured in the 1913 Armory Show

Armory Show

Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...

 in New York.

He had a whirlwind romance and marriage to Lina Cavalieri

Lina Cavalieri

Lina Cavalieri was an Italian operatic soprano and diseuse known for her grace and beauty.-Biography:...

. This marriage lasted only a short time, after which Cavalieri returned to Europe where she became a much-loved star in pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Russia and in the Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

Like Mai Rogers Coe and Everett Shinn

Everett Shinn

Everett Shinn was an American realist painter and member of the Ashcan School, also known as 'the Eight.' He was the youngest member of the group of modernist painters who explored the depiction of real life...

, Chanler was staying in Paris in the 1890s and became involved with the art community. When he returned to the U.S in the early 1900s he purchased a townhouse on East 19th Street, decorated it with his own works, and called it his House of Fantasy that became a social center for New York’s art community. Like Everett Shinn, Chanler was a personality and a figure in his time.

Like many women of her class, Mai Rogers Coe was a patron of artists and had a taste for the elaborate decorative works of Robert Winthrop Chanler. Chanler painted decorative murals in Mai Coe's Bedroom (1921) and in the family's breakfast room, the Buffalo Room (1920).

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City...

 and Mai Rogers Coe were perhaps Chanler's greatest patrons, but he received commissions from other wealthy families for decorative murals and screens. By 1920, when he completed the murals in the Buffalo Room, Chanler’s work was well known. He later received favorable commentary in The Upholsterer and Interior Decorator magazine for his murals in Mai Coe’s bedroom (1921) and in International Studio magazine for his painted screens (1922). Chanler designed murals for Gertrude’s studio in Greenvale, New York

Greenvale, New York

Greenvale is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the CDP population was 1,094. It is part of both the Roslyn and North Shore School Districts....

, including a seaworld fantasy in the bathroom. The studio is extant and privately owned.

Around this time, Chicago industrialist James Deering

James Deering

James Deering was an industrialist executive in the family Deering Harvester Company and subsequent International Harvester, a socialite, and an antiquities collector. He is known for his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day...

 commissioned him to paint an "undersea fantasy" fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

 on the ceiling of the indoor/outdoor swimming pool at Villa Vizcaya

Villa Vizcaya

Vizcaya, now named the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida...

 (1916-1925), Deering's winter home in Miami, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

Chanler's work has been compared to the fantastical works of some renaissance painters. His works involve the use of sculpted gesso, transparent glazes, and gilded finishes to produce ornate and decorative designs. His work still exists in his family’s estate, “Rokeby

Rokeby

Rokeby is the name of:People:* Baron Rokeby, a British titlePlaces in Australia:* Rokeby, Tasmania* Rokeby, VictoriaPlaces in Canada:* Rokeby, OntarioPlaces in the United Kingdom:* Rokeby Park...

” near Barrytown, New York

Barrytown, New York

Barrytown is a hamlet within the town of Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and comprises four of the Hudson River Valley estates: Edgewater, Messina, Rokeby, and Sylvania...

, the Luxembourg Museum and in private collections across the country.