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Gari Melchers: An American Impressionment at Gari Melchers - Ephemera Home and Abroad
4-2015
Gari Melchers An American Impressionist at Home and Abroad
Stephen May
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INDEXES ON Newsstand Rate $1.75 Published by The Bee Publishing Company, Newtown, Connecticut PAGES 36 & 37
Melchers found many attrib- utes in common among Dutch peasants and black workers in the Western Hemisphere, “A Harbor Boy,” circa 1928, is set in Barbados. Both represented to him the virtues of traditional values and hard work.
In this vintage photograph, Melchers sits in his Egmond studio, with “The Choirmaster” on the easel to the far right. His canvases of church interiors offered him the opportunity to document the piety of his neigh- bors. Michael Quick, who included Melchers in an expatriates exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1976, said, “It is only a matter of time until Gari Melchers … will be accorded the attention due his con- siderable abilities, and he will again be honored as one of our best artists of the late Nineteenth Century.” Gari Melchers An American Impressionist At Home And Abroad
BY STEPHEN MAY in 1976 and a retrospective in St FAIRFIELD, CONN. — During the Petersburg, Fla., in 1990, but no other course of a distinguished half-century significant shows. career in Europe and America, Gari The paucity of Melchers exhibitions Melchers admired the hardworking, pious people of the Netherlands, Melchers (1860–1932) created widely makes particularly welcome “Gari especially the working women like the figure in “Homeward,” an 1885 acclaimed paintings of Dutch peasant Melchers: An American Impressionist watercolor that measures 17¼ by 23¾ inches. She appears to be bear- and religious life, Impressionist can- at Home and Abroad,” on view through ing a kriel on her back, a basket used to carry potatoes from the field vases of Europe, New York City and the May 22 at Bellarmine Museum of Art or dry wood from the dunes. Works like this “established Melchers’ American South, perceptive portraits at Fairfield University. Started by the reputation as a painter of Dutch scenes that celebrate the virtues of and giant murals. museum’s former director Jill Deupi, an unsophisticated life of hard work and pious reverence.... [They] After enjoying extraordinary critical who grew up seeing Melchers works in brought Melchers’ art to the attention of a widespread international and public success in his lifetime, Fredericksburg, Va., and completed by audience,” observed Diane Lesko. Melchers slipped into oblivion after his interim director Carrie Mack Weber, death. Critics and art historians have the show comprises 23 works on loan Dusseldorf in 1877 to learn the fine Trappist monastery. tended to ignore art like Melchers’ that from Belmont, Melchers home and stu- points of academic art. Four years Having completed his formal art edu- ranges too broadly for neat categoriza- dio in Fredericksburg, in oil, watercol- later, he moved to Paris, training first cation, Melchers maintained a studio tion. Some view expatriate artists, with or, pastel, gouache and charcoal. Most at the Academie Julian and then the in Paris while settling with fellow the exception of Mary Cassatt, John are seldom seen in public. Ecole des Beaux Arts. Within a year he American painter George Hitchcock in Singer Sargent and Henry O. Tanner, Born Julius Garibaldi (in honor of painted “The Letter,” 1882, a Vermeer- the remote Dutch fishing village of as unworthy of serious consideration Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi) in like canvas showing two Breton peas- Egmond. They, like other American as American painters. The onset of Detroit of German immigrant parents, ant women standing at a sunlit interi- artists, were attracted by Holland’s American Scene/regional art further Gari’s father, Julius Melchers, was an or window reading a newly arrived let- history and nostalgia for a preindustri- eclipsed Melchers’ more conventional art teacher and gifted woodcarver ter. Accepted at the Paris Salon, this al past, which they found in the sim- work. known for church furnishings and realistic work established the subject plicity and piety of Dutch peasants, In recent years, there have been spo- cigar store Indians. (A carved and matter, style and subdued palette that and the legacy of Dutch art, particular- radic efforts to resurrect the reputation painted example of the latter fetched characterized Melchers’ paintings for ly the Hague School. of this one-time international super- $153,600 at a Sotheby’s auction in years. At age 22, he was recognized as Working in a stone studio atop dunes star and acquaint the public with his 2004.) an important artist. A painting trip to overlooking the North Sea, Melchers achievements. He was included in an Young Gari studied drawing under Italy that year prompted “Kneeling in expatriates exhibition in Los Angeles his father’s tutelage before heading to Church,” painted while he stayed in a ( continued on page 30 ) 30 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — April 24, 2015
Belmont’s longtime director David Berreth stands in the studio room in front of Melchers’ “The Choirmaster,” 1888–1891, — one of a trilogy of works, including “The Sermon” and “The This undated photograph shows Melchers with his paint- Communion.” Like many of the artist’s paintings, it is large — 49 by 68 inches. In spite of the ing “The Smithy.” It was acquired by the Corcoran international acclaim for paintings such as these, Melchers is seldom mentioned in art his- Gallery of Art, which sold it to an unidentified bidder at tories, and his works are rarely displayed in major museums. This painting is not in the auction in 2008 for $122,000. show. Gari Melchers An American Impressionist At Home And Abroad ( continued from page 1C ) Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, now installed at the library of the University set out to be the painter of Dutch peas- of Michigan. This led to a commission on ant life. He created a visual record of a the same subjects for the new Library of bygone era in Holland: young women Congress in Washington, DC, and working or resting on dunes, farmers murals for the Detroit Public Library laboring in fields, fishermen conversing and the Missouri State Capitol. and devout locals worshipping in aus- In 1903, Melchers married Corinne tere churches. Mackall, a former student of His intense interest in the everyday Hitchcock’s, whose beauty shines lives of his neighbors, who served as through in several likenesses. Notable is models, is reflected in “The Sermon,” Corinne in a satin dress in 1905, silhou- depicting a young peasant woman etted against windows at their home in This portrait of Melchers is by Here, Gari Melchers and his wife asleep during church service, and the Fredericksburg. James Jebusa Shannon, an Corinne pose at Belmont, where monumental, decoratively patterned “In Between 1905 and 1909, Melchers American-born, leading British they lived happily, enjoying the Holland,” showing two peasant women stayed in the United States for extended portraitist. He conveys his fellow peace and quiet of their Virginia headed for work on the dunes with a periods in connection with important artist’s somewhat disheveled look, enclave. He is dapper in a three- windmill and village skyline behind. exhibitions and portrait commissions, intense gaze and hints at Melchers’ piece suit, bow tie and derby. She “Homeward,” in the Fairfield exhibition, such as for President Theodore modesty, unaffected by his success- sits elegantly, wearing a large hat, features a rake- and bucket-toting peas- Roosevelt. Renting a studio in the es as a painter of international looking as lovely as she does in her ant woman crossing dunes toward a red- Beaux-Arts Building facing renown. This painting is not fea- husband’s many paintings of her. roofed village. Melchers’ admiration for Manhattan’s Bryant Park, he painted tured in the show. Holland’s brave seamen is suggested by several views out his windows, depicted “The Pilot,” depicting an aging sailor the Hudson River busy with boats and relaxing at a kitchen table. portrayed the gritty “Wharves, New During frequent travels to the United York,” with red brick buildings spewing States, Melchers executed a number of smoke and a bustling scene on the North murals, starting with “The Arts of War River. and Peace” at the World’s Columbian Melchers’ growing interest in
Among the highlight paintings in Belmont’s elegant studio room is, on wall to left, “The Fencer,” circa 1895, depicting a ramrod straight master of the sport in an academic style. This oil on canvas measures a sizable 807/8 by 39¼ inches and had a long exhibition record. The studio remains outfitted with Melchers’ workbench, easels, brushes, palettes and other This gallery showcases some of Melchers’ Southern paintings, notably “A tools of his trade. A retrospective organized by Diane Lesko in 1990–91 Native of Virginia,” circa 1925 — on the far wall — presenting a weathered for a tour beginning at the Museum of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, Fla., farm woman standing alone with her hoe and vegetables beside her. It is a documented the high quality and international scope of the various realistic picture that recalls the artist’s equally unsentimental depictions of styles in which Melchers worked. The painting is not in the show. working residents in Holland. This painting is not in the show. April 24, 2015 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 31
Melchers’ interest in waterfronts included those he visited when in New York. In “Wharves, New York,” circa 1907, he painted a powerful evocation of the red-brick warehouses, wispy smoke and boat activity around the busy site on the North River. Belmont’s main house dates to 1790 and is perched on a bluff overlooking the Rappahannock River. Gari and Corinne Melchers lived in this peace- ful site starting in 1916. The white frame house is furnished with its orig- inal eclectic selection of pieces acquired by the couple in Europe — French and Oriental carpets, old porcelain, china and crystal. There are notable paintings not only by Melchers, but by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, George Hitchcock, Berthe Morisot and Frans Snyders.
Melchers treated his black subjects with respect and painted numerous views of them, such as “Ma Petite,” 1925, set in Barbados. According to art historian Diane Lesko, Melchers “painted like a Dutchman when he was in Holland, like a German in Germany and like a Southerner in the South… He repeated certain themes over the years, but his work continu- Melchers’ friendship with Childe Hassam, America’s leading ally reflected his sense of place.” Impressionist at the time, encouraged him to work in that style. In the 1920s, Melchers wintered several times in Bermuda. In “The Landing, Impressionism and strong decorative Petite.” The standout is “Uncle Jim,” a por- Bermuda” he conveyed the tranquil setting of the picturesque harbor detail influenced his later Dutch paint- trait of James Rowser, whose daughter with its aquamarine water and natives under intense sunlight. ings, including religious works, lush land- occasionally worked for Melchers. scapes, local residents at work and play, Dignified and straightforward, the ani- ty so enjoyed by the Melcherses. Under enough to stand the test of time, Melchers mother and child vignettes and young vil- mated play of the facial highlights against the leadership of director David Berreth and his art soon faded into the shadows, lage women sitting on thrones in tradi- a green background make it as insightful and curator Joanna Catron, the site has overtaken by other art movements. Hats tional costumes that evoke modern Dutch and vibrant as any likeness created by the been spruced up, and a visitors center and off to the folks at Fairfield University for Madonnas. He also painted a bold compo- artist. museum shop have been added. Belmont mounting this interesting, informative sition of a powerful “The Fencer” in a In one of his finest Impressionist works, is a lovely place to visit, especially for exhibition. It should whet visitors’ hybrid style that emphasized the sculp- “Young Woman Sewing,” Melchers fea- those who want to know more about its appetites to see larger oils from all stages tural forms of his academic motifs. Other tured a profile of his attractive wife seat- distinguished artist and owner. of Melchers’ career at Belmont. It all adds works melded his academic leanings with ed and sewing at a window at Belmont. There was an unusual outpouring of sor- to the attention and appreciation Gari Impressionism’s broken brushwork, bril- With its sparkling colors and flickering row when Melchers died of a heart attack Melchers deserves. liant sunlight and bright colors. Between brushwork, it is, in the words of art histo- at the age of 72. The New York Times Bellarmine Museum is at 1073 North 1909 and 1914, Melchers taught at the rian William H. Gerdts, “a classic example devoted an extraordinary three columns Benson Road at Fairfield University. For Academy in Weimar, Germany. of domesticated American to his obituary, describing him as “one of information, [email protected] or The totality of Melchers’ European out- Impressionism.” the foremost painters, who became inter- 203-254-4046. Belmont is at 224 put made him a celebrity of international The last painting Melchers completed nationally famous,” and saluting a career Washington Street, Fredericksburg, Va. stature, whose works were lauded and before his death, “The Lace Cap,” 1932, “glittering with medals and honors.” For information, www.garimelchers.org or sold well on both sides of the Atlantic. In showing a Dutch woman reading a letter Ironically, although his work is good 540-654-1015. 1928, his friend and biographer — and by light from a window, deals with the Hitchcock’s ex-wife — Henriette Lewis- same subject as “The Letter,” 1882, cited Hind wrote that “Melchers has been earlier, his first picture to gain wide pub- awarded gold medals and medals of honor lic attention. The comparison makes clear in nearly every capital of Europe.” One of how in the intervening 50 years his style several portraits of Lewis-Hind sold for a evolved from a muted, academic technique Melchers auction record $932,000 at to a bright, loose Impressionist manner. Sotheby’s in 2005. “The Smithy,” deacces- Melchers found tranquility and peace at sioned by the Corcoran, fetched $122,000 Belmont, the 27-acre, wooded estate in at auction in 2008. Fredericksburg overlooking the Returning to America at the outbreak of Rappahannock River, about 50 miles World War I, Melchers reopened his studio south of Washington. His widow stayed on in Manhattan and plunged into America’s for 23 years after his death in 1932, pro- art life. He served on a long list of art moting his work and proclaiming his organizations in New York, Washington greatness. In 1955, she bequeathed and Savannah. Belmont and its collections to the In 1916, when he and Corinne settled in Commonwealth of Virginia as a museum Fredericksburg, Melchers immediately and memorial to her husband. became the most famous Twentieth Today, the fully furnished Georgian Century artist working in the South. main house (1790) and large adjacent stu- Captivated by the simple folk and pictur- dio/gallery (1924) are maintained by Mary esque scenery of the region, Melchers Washington College and are open to the painted numerous bright Impressionist public. The imposing stone studio building canvases that included structures around contains light-filled galleries showcasing Part of Melchers’ high reputation Fredericksburg in the spring, notably a remarkable array of many of Melchers’ was based on his portraits of such “Saint George’s Church,” a classroom of finest works. well-known figures as banker South Carolina African American chil- Belmont thus offers invaluable insights Andrew Mellon and President Melchers spent the summer of 1882 dren, sturdy Virginia farm women, rabbit into the artist’s lifestyle, and with the Theodore Roosevelt. In “Girl’s Head sketching and painting in Italy. He hunters walking through the snow and largest repository of Melchers’ art any- (A Blond),” circa 1925, he presents a created this intimate devotional county fair horse races. where, including many Dutch master- noncelebrity in a closeup, head-on vignette, “Kneeling Monk in a The Fairfield exhibition underscores pieces, an invaluable overview of his oeu- image that seems to convey the sit- Church,” while staying in a Trappist Melchers’ empathetic view of black sub- vre. ter’s somewhat uneasy feeling. monastery in Casamari. jects, such as two paintings in Barbados Belmont’s expansive lawn, flower gar- — a strapping, barefoot young man in “A dens, boxwood promenade, ancient elms Unless otherwise noted, all works are by Gari Melchers. All are on loan from Harbor Boy” and the relaxed, barefoot “Ma and oaks and gazebo evoke the tranquili- Gari Melchers Home and Studio, University of Mary Washington.