Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: At His Core

"A Windmill in Montmartre" by Corot

"Even had Corot died at seventy-nine without seeing a ray of the coming aureole, we can fancy no despairing exit. Material cares never weighed upon him in his bachelorhood, and he had a merry heart. The fact of living and the act of painting were almost enough for him, and the appreciation of a few brother artists filled his cup.

We read of seasons of brief discouragement, and there were tears in his eyes sometimes when he came home from a Salon where his pictures were obscurely placed and he had overheard a scoffing phrase. But a look at his easel soon brought comfort, and the darling children of his hand were there in a complete collection to assure him that he had not lived in vain. 

'It must be confessed,' he once exclaimed, 'that if painting is a folly it is a sweet one - one that should excite envy, not forgiveness. Study my looks and my health, and I defy anyone to find a trace of those cares, ambitions, and remorseful thoughts which ravage the features of so many unfortunate folk. Ought one not to love the art which procures peace and contentment, and even health, to him who knows how to regulate his life?' 

But just here was Corot's talisman shared, alas, with how few! He knew how to regulate his life, and knew what it meant to live for his painting and to paint for himself."

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.)

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: Recognition

"Scene in the Forest of Fontainebleau" by Corot

"In 1833 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot got a minor medal for one of his exhibited pictures. In 1846 he was decorated for a 'Scene in the Forest of Fontainebleau.' In 1855 he received a first-class medal, and in 1867, oddly enough, one of the second class, but accompanied by the higher decoration of the Legion of Honor; and year by year artists and critics were louder in his praise. But the public was long in learning the fact that he even existed, and his father was quite as long in believing that his art was really art. When the first decoration came, 'Tell me,' he said to one of Corot's comrades, 'has Camille actually any talent?' Nothing would convince him that he was 'the best of us all;' nevertheless he doubled his pension.

Fifty years old when he thus achieved an income of six hundred dollars, Corot was sixty before any one bought his pictures, save now and then a brother artist. When the first customer departed with his purchase, 'Alas!' he cried in humorous despair, 'my collection has been so long complete, and now it is broken!' And when others followed he could hardly believe them serious, or be induced to set prices on his work. 'It is worth such and such a sum, but no one will give that, and I will not sell it for less. I can give my things away if I see fit, but I cannot degrade my art by selling them below their value.' When he actually dared to price one at ten thousand francs, and heard it had been sold, he was sure he had dropped a zero in marking the figures, and wrote to the Salon secretary repeating the sum in written-out words. 

Fortunately, Corot lived long enough to see the prices he thought no one would pay increased twenty-fold at public sales. A picture he had sold for 700 francs went many years later in the auction room for 12,000, and Corot 'swam in happiness,' for, he felt, 'it is not I that have changed, but the constancy of my principles that has triumphed. Never, indeed, did artist pursue his own path with a steadier disregard of public praise; and rarely has an artist so persistently neglected lived to enjoy his fame so long."

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.)

Camille Corot: Overview

"Little Girl with Doll" by Camille Corot

"In 1827 Camille Corot returned to France and sent his first picture to the Salon exhibition; and thereafter, until his death in 1875, he was never once absent from its walls. In 1834 he went again to Italy, but got no further than Venice, coming promptly home when his father wrote how much he missed him. In 1842 it was Italy again for some five or six months. In 1847 his father died. During all his later years Corot travelled much in Switzerland and various parts of France, and once he went to England and the Netherlands. In 1874 the widowed sister died with whom he had lived for many years, and his own health broke down. And on the 23d of February, 1875, his spirit passed away.

This is not much to tell of a life which lasted seventy-nine years, but it is all there is to be said about Corot's, except as it was bound up with his art. He never married, for, he said, he had a wife already - a little fairy called Imagination, who came at his call and vanished when he did not need her. He lived chiefly at Ville d'Avray with always a pied-à-terre* and studio in Paris, and mixed in no society but that of his brother artists.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.) 

*pied-à-terre: a small apartment, house, or room kept for occasional use

Camille Corot: To Italy

View of Rome - The Bridge and Castel Sant' Angelo
with the Cuppola of St. Peter's" by Camille Corot

"In 1825 Camille Corot went to Rome, where most of his fellow artists laughed at his work, but where all of them loved the worker, gay in spirit as he was, with a good voice for a song, and a modest, patient ear for the spoken words of others. 

Encouragement first came from Aligny who, surprising him at work on a study of the Colosseum, declared that it had qualities of the first value: exactness, skillful treatment, and an air of style. Corot smiled as at the chaffing of a friend; but the friend was an authority in the artist circle at the Café Grec, and, repeating there what he had said in private - protesting that Corot might some day be the master of them all - the bashful merchant's clerk soon found that his art was respected and his future believed in.

Fifty years later, when Aligny's body was brought from Lyons to be reinterred in Paris, Corot was one of the very few who followed it; a 'sacred duty,' as he said, the duty of gratitude to his first champion, bringing him forth in his white hairs under the swirling snow of a bitter winter dawn.

Naples as well as Rome was visited at this time, and perhaps Venice too."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.)

Camille Corot: First Teachers

"Seine and Old Bridge at Limay" by Camille Corot

"The first day Camille Corot was free from his job as a dry goods clerk, he took easel and brush and set himself down before the first thing he saw - a view of the Cité from a spot near the Pont Royal. 'The girls from my father's shop,' he said in later life, 'used to run down to the quai to see how Monsieur Camille was getting on. There was a Mademoiselle Rose, for instance, who came most often. She is still alive, and is still Miss Rose, and still comes to see me now and then. Last week she was here, and oh, my friends, what a change and what reflections it gave birth to! My picture has not budged. It is as young as ever, and keeps still the hour and the weather when it was done. But Mademoiselle Rose? But I? What are we?'

Michallon taught Corot at first and gave him counsel good for a youngster: to put himself face to face with nature, to try to render it exactly, to paint what he saw, and translate the impression he received. But soon he died, and Corot, seeking help elsewhere, chose Victor Bertin, who had been Michallon's own master. Bertin was a landscape painter of the classic school, worshiping Poussin's mastery of form, but in his own execution cold, measured, mechanical and hard. He might have taught Corot more and hurt him more had the young man not been forestalled by the long apprenticeship to nature and an inborn gift. As it was, Bertin taught him two things of priceless value, accurate drawing and a sense for 'style' in composition."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.)

 

Camille Corot: From Merchant to Artist

"View of Florence from the Boboli Gardens"
by Camille Corot

"Jean Baptiste Camille Corot was born in Paris in the year 1796. His father, a native of Rouen, had been a hairdresser, but, marrying a milliner, transferred his talents to her service, and in their little shop on the Rue du Bac, gradually amassed a snug bit of a fortune. Camille studied at a school in Rouen, where he remained seven years and gained the whole of his education. From school he went to a cloth merchant's shop and here eight years were passed. Then his love for art broke through the uncongenial tie.

While at Rouen his holidays had been spent with an old friend of his father's in long walks beside the borders of the Seine; and later he found solace in summer days at Ville d'Avray where his people had a little country home. A love for nature was thus gradually fostered in a soul which by birth was peculiarly receptive; and we read of long night-watches at his bedroom window filled with vague poetic musings, visions of nymphs, and aspirations towards some more congenial tool than the yardstick. Indeed, the brush was soon the yardstick's rival. 

An easel was set up in the humble bedroom. A sketchbook was always in hand outdoors; and lithographic stones and sheets of scribbled paper strewed the merchant's counter, underneath which they retired with Corot during the pause between one customer and the next. A casual acquaintance with the young painter Michallon brought about the crisis long deferred by Camille's sweet and docile temper. The tale is the old one of loud parental opposition, but it is not followed by the usual sequel of lasting bitterness. When once convinced that there was nothing else to do, Corot's father made a rather sharp bargain with his son, 'If you insist upon painting you will have no capital to dispose of as long as I live. I will make you a pension of fifteen hundred francs. Don't count upon ever having more, but see whether you can pull yourself through with that.' And for thirty years Camille lived on his three hundred annual dollars and was one of the happiest mortals in Paris.""

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.)

Gari Melchers: Tributes

"The Fencer"
by Gari Melchers

"The accolades that Gari Melchers received at the time of his death testify to the respect he enjoyed among his fellow artists and others he had known and worked with during his life. His impressive New York Times obituary contains words of praise from such art world luminaries as John Sloan, Charles Dana Gibson, Childe Hassam, and the architect Cass Gilbert.

Childe Hassam wrote: 'The sudden death of my old friend and confrère, Gari Melchers, ends a friendship of fifty years - we met in Paris in our students days - and a half century of modern art history. He was always the sound craftsman and a firm believer in an academic training - I use this term in its best sense - and the study of the master, old and new. Once may see in the beautiful galleries of the National Institute and American Academy of Arts and Letters a most comprehensive and find exhibition of his work. It may be seen by all, and what better monument or more fitting exposition of his ability could be had - no word of mine may add to it!'

Robert Underwood Johnson: 'Aside from his distinction as a painter - in which regard I believe his fame will steadily increase - Gari Melchers was one of the most admirable and lovable of men. While holding his own in a discussion, for he had pronounced convictions, he did so with gentleness and without dogmatism. He was modestly hesitant before expressing opinions on topics new to him. He was affectionate and intensely loyal to his friends, simply and democratic in his attitude toward others and without the slightest affectation or pretension. He was sincerely jealous of the principles of his art and would not budge from them an inch for conventional or personal reasons. He had the generous appreciation of the artistic achievement of others that goes with an impersonal belief in the supreme value of art...'

Scores of telegrams, letters, and memorial flowers poured into Belmont from friends, relatives, fellow artists, and dignitaries. Always a lady, Mrs. Melchers answered or thanked every single person. 

Other tributes came in the form of posthumous exhibitions. A major memorial show was mounted at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the fall of 1933. Commemorative exhibitions were held in the following years at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah; and the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. Shows of his works were also mounted at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1935 and at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1938."

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

Gari Melchers: Later Years

"Lady Reading - The Communicant"
by Gari Melchers

"Gari Melchers' art continued to enjoy official recognition in his later years. More one-man shows were held during the last decade and a half of his life than during the whole rest of his career. This period of intense activity ended abruptly with his death on November 30, 1932. Early in November Melchers helped to mount a major retrospective exhibition of his works at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. Apparently fatigued from the task of preparing the exhibition, the seventy-two-year-old artist was ordered by his doctors to return to Belmont to rest. 

After bathing and shaving on the morning of the thirtieth, the artist returned to bed to read his mail, which contained numerous congratulatory letters on the academy show. He succumbed peacefully to a heart attack at 9:30 a.m. Although his passing seemed sudden, it was not altogether unanticipated. The artist is reported to have had premonitions of his death, telling his friends that he would not live out the year but that he felt grateful to have lived long enough to see the opening of the academy show.

His funeral was held on Friday, December 2, at Belmont. A delegation headed by Robert Underwood Johnson, then secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and former US ambassador to Italy, represented the New York art community on this somber occasion. The American Academy also honored Melchers by hanging black crepe over the entrance doorway of the galleries in which his works were then being shown. In conformance with a desire expressed in Melchers' will, his body was cremated. His ashes were placed in an urn that is now set into a wall near the entranceway of the fieldstone studio at Belmont. The remains of Corinne Melchers, who died in 1955, were later placed alongside those of her husband in this final resting place, which is marked by a bronze plaque."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: The Detroit Public Library Murals

"The Landing of Cadillac's Wife"
by Gari Melchers

"The Detroit murals were commissioned in 1921 by Cass Gilbert, architect of the newly constructed library building, whom Gari Melchers knew through their mutual involvement in the Century Association. Gilbert also commissioned murals by Edwin H. Blashfield, who, coincidentally, had worked with Melchers on the Library of  Congress project of 1895. Melchers' three murals, which are set into arches in the library's book-receiving room, depict historical and allegorical subjects related to the settling of Detroit. There were three in the series: 'The Landing of Cadillac's Wife,' 'The Conspiracy of Pontiac,' and 'The Spirit of the Northwest.'

Melchers did extensive research to ensure the historical accuracy of the details of these paintings. Essays on early Detroit were his primary source of information. He also looked at examples of eighteenth-century uniforms in the collection of Henry Ogden, an expert on historic military attire. The map in one of the paintings was copied from the original in the Geographic Society of New York. More than a hundred preparatory studies in a variety of media were made for the Detroit paintings.

At the time of the commission Melchers was living in Falmouth, Virginia, with his wife Corinne. His studio and additional spaces were used to work on the commission.  In fact, according to documentation, he used local townspeople from the Fredericksburg, Virginia area as models for this commission, and his wife Corinne was active making costumes for models as well as posing for 'The Landing of Cadillac’s Wife.' Because of Melchers' age and his deteriorating physical condition resulting from attacks of phlebitis, he called upon his wife’s cousin Robert McGill Mackall, a Baltimore artist to assist him with this monumental work. Mackall was responsible for research sketches, helping to prepare canvases, and most likely he also painted portions of the finished work.  

Once the final canvases were completed in October of 1921 in Virginia they were delivered to the Detroit Public Library and installed under the supervision of Melchers. From the handwritten paper listing his earnings from the year 1921, it appears the he was paid $14,000 for this commission, today that amounts to $180,000.  The murals were well received and remain beloved by Detroit’s proud citizen’s because the murals are a magnificent depiction of their city’s history.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Gari Melchers: His Works in the Belmont Collection," and "Behind the Scenes: Detroit Public Library Mural Commission," a blogpost by Madison Martin on the Gari Melchers Home & Studio website.) 

Gari Melchers: Southern Hospitality

"The Open Door" by Gari Melchers

This is an clipping from the Daily Star (forerunner of today's Free Lance-Star) dated January 3, 1921 highlighting a New Year's Day party the Melchers hosted here at Belmont.

"New Year's Reception"
January 1921
Mr. and Mrs. Melchers Entertain
at Tea and Dance at Belmont

"Mr. and Mrs. Gari Melchers entertained at a charming afternoon tea and dance at their Virginia home, Belmont, in Stafford county, a short distance from Fredericksburg on New Year's Day. Nearly one hundred guests were invited, the large majority of them from this city and section, while others were present from several distant States.

The handsome colonial mansion never appeared prettier with the simple, though artistic decorations of foliage, cedar trees and holly from nearby forests, and lighted by wax candles and shaded candleabra. The entire lower floor was thrown open to the guests. Mr. and Mrs. Melchers were assisted in receiving by their house guests, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hine of London, and Mr. Magill Machall of Baltimore. Mr. Hind, who is an art critic and author of international note, with Mrs. Hind, are spending the winter in New York.

A marine orchestra from the Quantico Post furnished excellent music for dancing, and at frequent periods the floors of the spacious drawing rooms were filled with couples.

Refreshments, which included all the delicacies associated with old fashioned Virginia hospitality, were served. The occasion was one of the most delightful informal social functions held in this section in recent years, and was worthy of the best and oldest days of 'Ole Virginia.'"

Gari Melchers: Inspired by Virginia

"Crimson Rambler" by Gari Melchers

His heavy impasto work

"Between 1916 and 1932 Gari Melchers produced a series of genre, landscape and still-life paintings that depict his new home as well as the inhabitants and surroundings of the region. The prominent site of Melchers' new home, which has commanding views of the area, may have motivated the artist to work in this landscape mode. 'From My Window' represents a view of the Rappahannock River valley just to the east of Belmont, showing parts of Fredericksburg and Falmouth. 

Scenes are also viewed from the eye level of the man on the street. 'Nelson Berry's Store' display a number of important stylistic features of Melchers' late works. Here the artist has heightened the brilliance of naturalistic hues until they approach arbitrary colors. The impastoed paint surface of the painting, which is thicker than his earlier works, is also typical of his later work. These two qualities are also very evident, and used effectively, in his painting of a lovely rose arbor at Belmont entitled "Crimson Rambler."

His still-life paintings are a third group that directly reflected his new environment. The subjects of these works include flowers, fruit, and fish as well as decorative art object that he owned. 'Flowers in a Blue Jar' depicts pink and white cosmos, yellow marigolds, and blue and purple anemones arranged loosely in a Chinese pottery jar - another work features a Staffordshire bowl. Both the jar and bowl are still in the Belmont collection."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: Belmont

'The Sun Porch' by Melchers seen in the
living room at Belmont

"Despite the cultural, social, and commercial opportunities New York offered, the city was not acceptable to Melchers as a year-round place of residence. He needed a home and a studio in an undeveloped area to be close to the rural subject matter that he had always favored. Melchers was, no doubt, already looking for a country estate in 1916 when a Detroit architect, Frank Baldwin, suggested that he consider Belmont. The artist must have been impressed by the picturesque site of this eighteenth-century Georgian home perched on a ridge overlooking the falls of the Rappahannock Rive in Falmouth, Virginia. Good rail service to New York satisfied an important practical consideration. Consequently, he purchased Belmont, acquiring the deed to the house and property in September 1916.

Melchers was not the first owner to enlarge the house at Belmont, but his alteration was unique, for it expressed in architectural terms his longstanding fascination with light. He added the five-sided sun porch that now graces the southern side of the house. This luminous alcove boasts six expansive arched windows and a set of glass doors that open onto a broad lawn. This delightful effect of the small room was captured by him in his painting 'Sun Porch.'

Light is also a salient feature of the fieldstone studio that Melchers had constructed on the grounds in 1923-24. Northern exposure is provided by a huge window in the gable wall of the work area. A skylight illuminates an adjacent room that the artist used for exhibition purposes.

Corrine and Gari enriched the interior of the house with the eclectic array of paintings, furnishing, and decorative artworks that they had collected. They had acquired works of art by Frans Snyders, Auguste Rodin, Gainsborough Dupont, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Childe Hassam, George Hitchcock, Hans Hermann, Walter MacEwen, and others. These are still displayed in the house. The crowning gem of the collection is Berthe Morisot's fresh and vividly colored 'A Sailing Party,' although the collection at one time boasted a Degas which Mrs. Melchers purchased at a sale in New York in 1921. Her collection of Wedgwood, Delft, and Canton ware and many other decorative art objects remain at Belmont today, including a sumptuous French Savonnerie carpet that beautifies the drawing room."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: Involvements

"Woman Reading by a Window" by Gari Melchers

"After Gari and Corinne Melchers return from Weimar, Germany, in the late summer of 1915, they traveled to Detroit. Melchers' mother had died while he was en route to America, and the artist returned to his hometown to arrange for the sale of the family home and its furnishings. In December 1915 and early the following year, Melchers was in New York and once again leased a studio at the Beaux-Arts Building across from Bryant Park. In September 1916 Melchers purchased the Belmont estate in Falmouth, Virginia, and established a studio there. During the remaining years of his life Melchers was to live and work both in New York and Virginia.

By reestablishing a studio in New York he continued to benefit from the artistic, social, and business opportunities provided by this cultural mecca. He became a member of the Century Association, a prestigious club of writers, artists, and patrons of the arts; the Coffee House, a club providing an 'inexpensive and agreeable meeting place for men who were interested in the arts,' and from 1920 to 1926 was chairman of the New Society of Artists, an organization that sponsored an annual exhibition of works of its members, as well as lectures and demonstrations by member artists.

Melchers was also active in art organizations outside of the New York area, particularly in Virginia and Washington, D.C. The painter championed the cause of America art through the leadership he provided as chairman of the Smithsonian Commission to Establish a National Gallery of Art, the gallery known now as the National Museum of American Art. In 1923 he succeeded Daniel Chester French as head of the commission, which was set up by Congress to oversee the construction of a museum to house artworks given as gifts to the United States and to judge which of these gifts were worth including in a national collection. He continued to serve in this capacity until his death in 1932.

Melchers' contributions to art in America on a national level were augmented by his involvement on the state level in Virginia. In 1930 he became a member of the Virginia Arts Commission. At this time the commission was preparing the State Capitol and its grounds in Richmond for the celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of George Washington in 1932. Melchers made recommendations for the restoration of the Capitol and nearby bell tower and for the execution and display of a series of portrait busts of Virginia-born presidents in the Capitol rotunda."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: Leaving Germany

"The Grove" by Gari Melchers

"The First World War forced Gari and Corinne Melchers to leave Weimar. Although America did not officially declare war on Germany until 1917, the United States' support for the Allied forces in Europe changed the attitude of the German people toward American citizens living in Germany. Melchers described the degeneration of this climate of opinion:

'During the first months of the war, they only felt irritated towards Americans for being slow about seeing things straight and wondered how we could fail to understand their point of view. But now they have given us up as a bad and corrupt lot and I believe they hate us almost as much as they do the English.'

It was this general hostility that compelled Gari and Corinne to flee Germany for neutral Holland in June 1915 and to leave Europe altogether for America later that summer.

Paradoxically, much of what we know about Melchers' associations with German artists is provided by letters he received after his departure from Germany. Artist friend Henry van de Velde related in a letter to Melchers that he faced an uncertain future at this time, for he had been forced to perform the 'bitter and subhuman job' of closing the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts in October 1915. 

Van de Velde's career difficulties were symptomatic of the misery endured by Melchers' other artist friends in Germany during and after the war. Letters from former associates are filled with grim tales of sons injured or missing in action and of severe economic hardship after peace was established. Melchers responded generously to the needs of his German friends by providing financial assistance.

Although Melchers made several trips to Europe during the ensuing years, the period of his life as an expatriate painter living abroad was over. He would continue to prosper as an American artist living and working at home and playing an increasingly active role in the art circles of this country."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: "In the Studio, Hugo Reisinger & Gari Melchers"

"In the Studio" by Gari Melchers

Preparatory Studies for "In the Studio"

"Gari and Corinne Melchers were invited to social entertainments and diversions of every kind during their time in Weimar, Germany. Her letters to her mother are filled with descriptions of lavish and festive gatherings, including a masked ball. They also benefited from the full range of cultural activities available in this artistic mecca, such as operas, symphony concerts, and plays.

The most noteworthy painting executed by Melchers during his stay at Weimar is 'In the Studio, Hugo Reisinger and Gari Melchers,' which is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hugo Reisinger was an American of German extraction who was deeply involved in promoting cultural exchanges between Germany and America. This double portrait shows the artist in shirt sleeves about to put brush to canvas as the entrepreneur looks at the work in progress. Preparatory sketches give a fascinating insight into the evolution of this painting. 

Some have wondered, because of this painting, if Melchers was left-handed, but this is easily answered by looking at other artists' portraits of him and also photographs of him painting. He was definitely right-handed, and must have done this particular self-portrait using a mirror.

Reisinger expressed to Melchers his delight with the double portrait and wrote at some length about the shows in which 'our portrait' would be exhibited. Other letters describe the warm relationship between Reisinger and Melchers. Reisinger stayed at the Melchers' home in Weimar in early March 1910, and shortly thereafter Corinne and Gari attended the Berlin opening of an exhibition of American art which Reisinger organized for the Berlin Academy. Melchers advised him on the selection of paintings for this show and was represented in it by three works, including his 'Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt.' Later letters from Reisinger to Melchers include reports on current art shows and the expression of negative opinions of avant-garde art."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: A German Interlude - Weimar

"The Caress" by Gari Melchers

"William Ernest, grand duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, arranged a meeting with Gari Meclchers in the fall of 1908 to discuss the possibility of his teaching at the Ducal Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar, Germany. In early March of the following year, the grand duke officially appointed the artist to the position of full professor at the academy. In the months that followed, Corinne and Gari Melchers began buying furniture and moving their belongings to a rented house in Weimar.

Melchers had a long history of involvement with German art and art institutions that culminated in his appointment to the academy. Not only had he received his first formal training at the Düsseldorf Academy, but he had shown his art regularly in Germany from the late 1880s onward and was awarded medals in exhibitions held in Munich, Berlin and Dresden. He exhibited thirty-eight paintings and drawings in two separate rooms at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1900. He also was made a Knight of the Order of Saint Michael of Bavaria in 1895, and an officer of the Royal Prussian Order of the Red Eagle in 1907, among other awards and honors.

Melchers enjoyed the generous patronage of the grand duke during his stay in Germany. The state provided him with a large studio on the town square opposite the house once occupied by Franz Liszt. The studio was renovated at government expense in 1912 to provide additional space and better lighting on the second floor. As Melchers wrote to his friend: 'This change was made by the Grand Duke upon my promise to renew my contract for one more year.' The ducal academy's new faculty member also was given a one-man show in Weimar in 1910. Light teaching responsibilities made it possible for Melchers to travel to other German cities and throughout Europe and to return to America for extended visits."

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

Gari Melchers: Portrait of a President

"President Theodore Roosevelt"
by Gari Melchers

"President Theodore Roosevelt is, without doubt, the most noteworthy of the many individuals painted by Gari Melchers. Indeed, that a public figure as important and well known as Theodore Roosevelt sat for the artist is indicative of Melchers' high reputation as a portraitist. The painting was commissioned by the Detroit industrialist and art collector Charles Freer and was painted during sittings at the White House on ten consecutive days in late February and early March 1908. The artist charged Freer $2,500 for the painting, roughly equivalent to $64,000 today. Freer considered the portrait a token of appreciation for the president's help in facilitating the Smithsonian Institution's acceptance of his vast art collection.

Melchers' picture presents the popular image of the man. The president is dressed in riding boots and jacket and holds gloves and a riding crop. This attire alludes to the role he played as organizer and commander of the Roughriders cavalry regiment, whose famous charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War captured the imagination of the American people and won Roosevelt national attention. Teddy was also known for his abundant energy and was thought of as the champion and practitioner of what he termed 'the strenuous life.' Roosevelt wanted his expression to be that of 'the man that sent the fleet around the world,' and once completed, he expressed satisfaction with it.

Always looking for consistent, indirect north light while painting, Melchers did the same at the White House. He wrote his wife that 'Mrs. Roosevelt took me around upstairs and downstairs to fine a suitable studio and we decided on the small dining room which has a north light.' The diary that Melchers kept during the ten days of work includes a detailed account of the procedure followed by the artist in painting a portrait. After working out the pose in a small sketch, Melchers roughed in the entire picture on larger canvas. He wrote his wife: 

'I am almost dead after working from 10 until 1:30 without a rest - only once for five minutes did Mr. President leave me. I began this morning with the charcoal on the canvas but soon took hold of the paint and brushes - and nearly covered the entire canvas. We were alone most of the time. Toward noon Mrs. Roosevelt with her sister and little boy Quentin came in from church and they all seemed very much pleased... Everybody in the White House seems to watch my performance with great interest and if nothing happens perhaps it will all come out well.' 

During the next four sittings he focused exclusively on the face and the head. On day eight, Melchers temporarily 'abandoned the head... to go to the rest of the picture and worked on the waistcoat and coat,' only to return to the face and head on the following day. Faces are, indeed, the most detailed part of the image in this and other portraits by Melchers.

Afterwards Roosevelt wrote Melchers saying that he 'considered the painting the best that had ever been done of him, and Freer predicted that it would always be considered the one that captured the 'dignity, force and character' of the president. 'Art is a language,' he wrote to Melchers, 'and your portrait will talk to the people through coming centuries.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Gari Melchers: His Life and Art" by Joseph G. Dreiss and from an article by Michelle Crow-Dolby on the Gari Melchers Home & Studio website.)

 

Gari Melchers: Corinne Mackall

"Portrait of Mrs. Gari Melchers"
by Gari Melchers

"In the spring of 1902 Gari Melchers first made the acquaintance of a young art student by the name of Corinne Lawton Mackall, whom he was later to marry. The fortuitous meeting occurred during a sea voyage from New York to Naples. The future Mrs. Melchers was on her way to Europe with her mother and her younger brother, Lawton, and the artist was returning from one of his frequent visits to America.

Corinne was raised by her mother after the untimely and sudden death of her father in 1890. She had been enrolled as an art student at the Maryland Institute before her trip to Europe. Her interest in art was a major attraction to Melchers, as she later reported to her mother. The artist once told her that he might not have been interested in her if she had not liked art.

After the ship docked in Naples on May 14, the two went their separate ways, Melchers returning to the Egmonds, and Corinne and her family embarking on a grand tour of the Continent to visit many of the major art centers. However, the two met again in Egmond aan Zee in July. Corinne arranged to go there to attend George Hitchcock's summer art class. When she left for Paris in the fall, Melchers followed her  and after a brief courtship proposed to her on December 27. They were married on April 14, 1903, in a wedding ceremony held of the Isle of Jersey.

Following the wedding, the couple traveled to Paris where they were toasted by Melchers' many art-world acquaintances and where the new Mrs. Melchers was introduced to her husband's close friends. The newlyweds next went to Berlin to attend an exhibition in which Melchers' paintings were on display. They arrived back in Egmond aan den Hoef late that spring to being in earnest their married life together."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: Murals

Study for "The Arts of Peace" by Gari Melchers

"Gari Melchers executed two sets of mural paintings during the 1890s: The Columbian Exposition murals of 1893 and the Library of Congress murals done two years later. Closely related in style and subject matter, these works represent a departure from his typical realistic subjects. Although his murals were wall decorations intended for a specific site, they were not painted directly on the wall. Executed in oil on canvas, they were only later affixed to the wall surface. Melchers' murals of this period anticipate those he would later paint for the Missouri State Capitol and Cass Gilbert's Detroit Public Library building.

In 1890 Congress designated the city of Chicago as the site for a large international exposition; three years later the World's Columbian Exposition was opened to the public. Within this short time span an army of architects, decorators, landscape architects, painters, and sculptors transformed the marshy grounds of Chicago's Jackson Park on Lake Michigan into the splendid and ostentatious 'White City'. 

Melchers contributed to the exposition in three capacities - as a judge, an exhibiting artist, and muralist. He served on the International Board of Judges, along with William Merritt Chase, Francis D. Millet, Worthington Whittredge, John LaFarge, Robert Swain Gifford, and others. This group was charged with selecting  the American paintings to be shown at the exposition. To prevent a conflict of interests, judges were not eligible for any awards. Melchers did, however, exhibit seven paintings.

His murals were, however, his most important contribution to the exposition. He painted two large-scale lunettes for the gigantic Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building. They were allegorical paintings depicting the 'Arts of Peace' and the 'Arts of War,' and their style was directly influenced by the work of Puvis de Chavannes. They now grace the walls of the Library of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and two small-scale preparatory sketches are in the Belmont collection.

His work on these murals brought him into contact with other American artists and with the patron class that sponsored the American Renaissance. He became better known to an American clientele because of the public exposure and thus was able to win portrait commissions in Chicago and Detroit. Besides  several portraits he had painted for the Potter Palmers, he also did portraits of Chicago socialites, Mrs. George Pullman, Mrs. Ogden Armour and Mrs. Arthur Caton, among others."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: The Influence of Paris

"The Skaters" by Gari Melchers

"Paris may not have been as important as Holland was to Gari Melchers' art and life, but he spent a good deal of time in the city in the final decades of the century. Correspondence indicates that he occupied at least three different studios during his visits there while he maintained a studio and residence at Egmond in Holland. Although he painted primarily Dutch subjects, he probably finished many of the paintings begun at Egmond in his Paris studios. His exhibition record also testifies to an active involvement in the Paris art scene.

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was Melchers' closest associate among the French artists. He frequently visited the French symbolist at his studio in the Place Pigalle. Puvis gave Melchers his own Legion of Honor Cross on the day when the American artist received notice of being awarded the same medal by the French government. Puvis' medal is now in the Belmont collection in Virginia, along with an oil sketch and two short letters. 

Melchers' contact with Puvis also affected his other oil paintings of the period. 'The Skaters' show the influence of Puvis' style in their shallow space, which is limited by the positioning of the figures in the immediate foreground. Further, the landscape elements that fill the upper area of the compositions and the girl's embroidered cape form a linear pattern which is read across the surface rather than into depth. 

Puvis was but one of the internationally renowned artists with whom Melchers was associated in Paris. He also had professional dealings with Auguste Rodin, having been commissioned by Scribner and Sons to illustrate an article on Rodin's sculpture. Three nude figure studies by Rodin and a short note by him to Melchers in the Belmont collection provide further evidence of contact between the two artists. 

Melchers can be linked with other lesser-known Parisian artists and writers. Alfred Philippe Roll, Jean Charles Cazin, William Turner Dannat, Mihály von Munkácsy and Alexandre Dumas fils were among those he met with regularly at the Café Dréy. 

The development of his painting is in large part based on developments in French art: the realist paintings of the 1880s, the impressionistic style of his middle and late periods, the symbolism which broadened the graphic range of his art beyond the limitations of realism, and the highly saturated and arbitrary colors of his late works reflecting stylistic innovations of post-impressionism."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: Painting in Holland

"The Pilots" by Gari Melchers

Gari Melchers' Dutch paintings of the 1880s are possibly the best of his career. The decade had begun with the early success of 'The Letter' at the Salon of 1882 and ended with the artist winning the Grand Prize at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 with 'The Pilots'. In between, Melchers won a series of awards and honors in the French capital and in other important European art centers. By 1890 he was an established artist with a growing reputation.

Doubtless he was inspired by the picturesque life around him, and his subject matter was varied. Melchers produced a number of important canvases depicting peasant women in the dune-filled landscape around his studio, gathering moss, tending sheep and goats, or resting from their labors. He painted Egmond peasants in the intimacy of their homes, and there are numerous paintings and drawings of Dutch fishermen and sailors. 

Melchers' early Dutch paintings are also significant because they formed the basis of much of his later work. In them the artist established the subject matter that he would use throughout his career. The compositional formats employed and the concern for the effects of light in interior settings would also be retained by Melchers as his style evolved and changed.

To be continued

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

 

Gari Melchers: Painting Worship

"The Sermon" by Gari Melchers . (62 ⁵⁄₈" x  86 ¹⁄₂ ")

"The most important of Gari Melchers' early Dutch paintings are a group of large canvases depicting local townspeople at worship. Numerous preliminary sketches and studies in oil provide evidence of the care taken with each work. Their significance was recognized by his contemporaries and the works enjoyed success in the juried shows to which they were submitted. 

'The Sermon' received honorable mention in the Paris Salon of 1886 and won Melchers the First-Class Gold Medal at Amsterdam the same year. In 1888 'The Sermon' also won a First-Class Gold Medal at Munich. This painting, two other works, and 'The Communion' were exhibited in the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the latter won the Grand Prize for American painting, an honor which Melchers shared with no less a figure than John Singer Sargent.

The formal and narrative focus of 'The Sermon' is the stooped-over young woman who slumbers in a chair in the center foreground, and the older woman to her right who turns to look at her. By featuring the young woman's completely human reaction to the homily, Melchers avoids any religious sentimentality that might diminish the power of this candidly realistic scene.

In the sketch the artist employed generalized forms in order to work out the overall composition. He did, however, finish in detail the facial features of the woman on the extreme right, finding it useful to bring at least one figure to completion even at an early stage in the work process. 

A comparison of the sketch and final version reveals that Melchers adjusted both the color scheme and composition in the finished painting. He changed the color of the dress of the turning woman from blue to green and brightened the hue of the box pew. He eliminated the hanging oil lamp, a detail present in the earlier work. These adjustments reveal that, although a realist, Melchers did not strive just to represent his subjects exactly as they appeared but worked with composition and color to simplify and clarify design."

To be continued

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

Gari Melchers: Working in Holland

"The Sisters" by Gari Melchers

"By 1884 Gari Melchers had completed his formal art education and needed to make pivotal choices concerning the future course of his career. He decided, as did many others of his generation who received their artistic training in Europe, that it would be more fruitful to remain abroad than to return to his native land. Thus, he could avail himself of the cultural, social, and financial advantages that Europe then seemed to provide. Although Melchers had been and would remain for many years a member of the Parisian art community, he also felt the need to set up a studio in a location far removed from this cultural mecca in order to paint the rustic subject matter favored by himself and many leading artists of the day.

His good friend from the Académie Julian, George Hitchcock, had settled in Egmonds three years before, and may very well have persuaded Melchers to join him there. Egmond aan Zee, Egmond aan den Hoef, and Egmond Binnen were at this time isolated enclaves of archaic rusticity. The people still adhered to age-old social and religious customs, sustaining their lives through dairying, fishing, and animal husbandry. This provided Melchers, Hitchcock, and another American artist, Walter MacEwen, with the subject matter of a rural and undeveloped society.

For a number of years Melchers and Hitchcock would jointly occupy a fieldstone-and-brick studio perched atop a dune on the shores of the North Sea. Melchers produced some of his best-known and finest works in this studio, and its interior also served as the setting for several of his paintings. He also painted outdoors recording the landscape, architecture, women of the town working or resting, and farmers laboring in the fields. He depicted the local citizenry decked out in their Sunday best at worship in the small church at Egmond Binnen and in the Castle Chapel, a Dutch Reformed church which still stands.  Melchers' artistic production of the next twenty years is in large part a visual record of this rural community of Dutch peasantry.

To be continued

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