Gari Melchers: Artistic Roots

"Portrait of a Man" by Gari Melchers

"Gari Melchers, whose full name was Julius Garibaldi Melchers, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on August 11, 1860. He was named after his father, Julius, and the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, whom the elder Melchers admired. He was the eldest son in a family that included another son and two daughters.

His father Julius was not only Gari's first teacher but an artist of considerable repute in his own right. He had served in his youth as an apprentice to a local woodcarver in Prussia, but forced to leave his native country as a result of his involvement in an unsuccessful revolution, he fled to Paris and enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied sculpture under the fabulous Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. 

In 1851 he left Paris and spent the following year in London working as a modeler of decorations for the Crystal Palace, then departed from Europe altogether in 1852, eventually joining relatives in Detroit. There he took up permanent residence and set up a sculpture studio. His son Gari is reported to have spent many afternoons there, serving, perhaps, a kind of informal apprenticeship.

Although nothing definite is known about the training program offered at the studio, Julius Melcher's attitude toward his apprentices has been described as stern and demanding. A nine-hour workday was typical, and Melchers also expected them to devote additional time in the evening to their craft. He is said to have consistently espoused the high ideals of art, demanding that his trainees unselfishly dedicate themselves to the pursuit of beauty without thought of monetary gain."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Gari Melchers: His Life and Art" by Joseph G. Dreiss.)