b. 1860 d. 1932
Site Affiliation: Gari Melchers Home & Studio
Like most aspiring American artists of his generation, Gari Melchers (1860-1932) pursued European training, acquiring a solid academic foundation that served him well as a figure painter and portraitist. As an expatriate with studios in Paris, Holland, and Germany, he built a reputation as a painter of everyday life, including the sphere of women, subjects he continued to pursue on his permanent return to the United States in 1916, much in thanks to the inspiration he derived from the beauty of Belmont and the surrounding community.
Primary Medium: Painting
Primary Stylistic Term: American Impressionism, Portraiture
Fun Fact: As a young man, Gari Melchers hung a Dutch slogan over his studio door: It read “waar en klaar,” or “true and clear.”
Recommended Publications: Gari Melchers: American Master 1860-1932 (2020); Gari Melchers: A Retrospective Exhibition (1990); Gari Melchers: His Works in the Belmont Collection (1984); The Return of Winter: A Painting Returned to its Rightful Owners 87 Years Later by Chandni Bhatt (2020)