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.)