During the latter part of the 20th century, Saul Chase was one of the most highly regarded and collected American artists. Known primarily for hyper-romanticized urban landscapes, he saw beauty in mundane, overlooked parts of the city, long before gentrification. Born in the Bronx in 1945, Chase began drawing and painting at an early age. He earned a BA in Fine Art from CCNY, then an MA from CUNY. In 1970, the purchase of a 2500 sq ft loft at 148 Greene Street, put him squarely in the center of the historic evolution of Soho. ACA Gallery began showing Chase's work in 1969, where a series of sold out shows received critical praise. In 1981, he left rapidly gentrifying Soho, accompanied by his wife and two young daughters, for a parcel of land, a house and a barn in rural Putnam County. In this peaceful pastoral setting he produced the intimate landscapes of "The Beautiful Hours" His work is represented in major museum and private collections including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum, The Yale University Art Gallery, Joseph Hirshhorn Museum And Sculpture Garden A Singular Vision Decades before gentrification, when The High Line, was still a run down NY Central right of way, the city was in the midst of a long decline. New York City in the 70s had become a punchline. Hardly any one was calling the city beautiful. However, a young New York artist envisioned something very different. He saw beyond the layers of neglect. Cherished memories from his boyhood in the Bronx blocked out the rust and grime. Seeing beauty that no one else saw, was something Chase had perfected as a boy. He loved walking the neighborhood streets early in the morning. He found that when things aligned perfectly and the light was right, there were patches of true beauty. These magical moments were lovingly preserved in memory, dreamed about, and resurrected later distilled and purified.