Chessé, Ralph (Raphael Alexandre)

Biographical Note

Ralph Chesse was a California-based artist who worked in the areas of painting, printmaking, theater, and puppetry. Chesse was born Raphael Alexandre Chesse on 6 January 1900 to Alexandre Laurent and Marie Henriette (nee Ticoulet) Chesse. The Chesses were a Creole family who lived in New Orleans, but Ralph was educated in New Orleans and Chicago, where additional family lived. He spent much of his youth between the two cities and became interested in painting at the age of seventeen, attending the Chicago Art Institute in 1918.

The following year, Chesse returned to New Orleans. His interest in theater led to work as an actor, makeup man, and assistant stage manager at Le Petit Theatre, where he worked with designer Marc Antony. His artwork was first exhibited in New Orleans in 1920. In 1923, Chesse traveled to California, first to San Francisco, then to Hollywood, where he worked as a time keeper on the United Artist lot. He returned to San Francisco, meeting artist and puppeteer Blanding Sloan, who introduced Chesse to marionette theater and puppetry.

In 1926, Chesse traveled to New York, working at the Neighborhood Playhouse as a scene painter and makeup man. In December of that year, he married Josephine Dupree and the couple moved back to San Francisco, where he continued working with Blanding Sloan. Chesse divided his time between acting, marionette shows, and exhibiting his paintings, drawings, and block prints. He opened his own theater, The Marionette Guild Theatre, on Merchant Street in San Francisco in 1929. In 1931, Chesse traveled to the Far East, visiting the Philippines, China, and Japan. In 1934, following the closure of the Marionette Guild Theatre, Chesse worked as one of 25 artists who were commissioned as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provided artwork for the Coit Tower in San Francisco.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Chesse worked with the WPA and Federal Theater Project, as well as various freelance projects. In the early 1950s, he broke into television, creating his first TV series, Willie and the Baron. His children’s program, The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz, ran for 17 years, beginning in 1952. Other television projects were created and overseen by Chesse.

During the 1960s-1980s, Chesse continued to act, create marionette theater, and exhibit his artwork. A visit to the Caribbean inspired Chesse to return to black subject matter in his art, a topic which he had portrayed as early as the 1920s. He 1983, Chesse moved to Ashland, Oregon, where he resided until his passing in 1991.

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