Gari Melchers

Melchers, Julius Garibaldi

American, 1860 - 1932

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American artist (1860-1932)

Explore Selected Works

Gari Melchers, Andrew W. Mellon, 1930, oil on canvas, Gift of Donald D. Shepard, 1953.11.1

Andrew W. Mellon

Gari Melchers · 1930 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1953.11.1

Gari Melchers, Maternity, c. 1913, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund), 2016.23.2

Maternity

Gari Melchers · c. 1913 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2016.23.2

In a wallpapered room with a window to our right, a woman to our right sits at a frame holding needlework while a woman wearing a black and white maid’s outfit stands facing her, to our left, in this nearly square painting. Both women have pale complexions and light brown hair loosely pulled up. The woman doing needlework faces our left in profile. She wears a pastel pink shawl or blouse with a long skirt patterned with gray, black, and white. She looks at her work as she pulls a needle and thread with her right hand, farther from us. The needlework is stretched on an easel-like frame so the top can be angled toward the seamstress. The maid wears a white cap and a white apron over a long-sleeved, black dress. She holds a small basket and seems to pull out or sort through yellow and white thread. The wall behind the women is patterned with bunches of dusky-pink flowers linked by baby-blue ribbons, against a field of pale, golden yellow. Sunlight pours through the window to our right, which is framed with periwinkle-blue curtains. On a table along that wall near us, a vase holds a bunch of leggy, magenta-purple flowers. A painting hanging over the seated woman’s head is done with muted tones of brown, blue, and brick red, and it shows a person on horseback in a landscape. The maid stands in front of a white mantlepiece that holds, from left to right, a white ceramic vase with white and yellow daises, a bronze-colored, sculpted bust of a woman, and a blue and white porcelain plate or bowl tipped up so we see the inside. A wood table with a wide, pedestal foot stands between us and the maid. It is covered with a periwinkle-blue cloth and holds a glass vase with yellow and orange flowers, a sea-glass green lamp with a white shade, a book, and possibly some papers. Lavender and royal-purple cloth is strewn across a wooden chair immediately in front of us, at the bottom center of the painting. The floor is painted with blended shades of mauve, pink, and tan. The artist signed the work with dark paint in the lower right corner: “Gari Melchers.”
Gari Melchers, Penelope, 1910, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund), 2015.19.3

Penelope

Gari Melchers · 1910 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.3

Two pale-skinned girls stand hand in hand in a grassy field in this vertical painting. To our left, the younger girl is about two heads shorter than her companion and holds a doll clutched in the crook of her right arm. She has short, light blond hair, and she stares at us or just above our heads with wide, blue eyes. She has round cheeks, and her rosebud-shaped mouth is parted. She wears a moss-green skirt patterned with lilac-purple flowers, a tan sash around her waist, and a shirt with violet-purple and navy-blue, vertical stripes on the torso and elbow-length white sleeves. One calf-high boot slouches down and the other brushes the bottom of her flaring skirts. Her doll wears a grayish-blue dress with a brown hem and fog-gray stockings. The taller girl on our right holds the smaller girl’s hand and turns to look down at her. Her cheeks are rosy, and her flaxen yellow hair falls nearly to her shoulders. She wears a vivid, apricot-orange dress with elbow-length sleeves, a light blue kerchief tied in a bow around her neck, and dark brown stockings and shoes. The girls stand close to each other and us in front of a grassy field dotted with blue, yellow, and white flowers. Two white goats graze in the distance behind the smaller girl. Reddish brown roofs suggest that houses nestle into a dip beyond the meadow. Smoke curls from a couple chimneys. The horizon nearly reaches the top edge of the painting so only a sliver of silvery gray sky lines the top of the composition. The artist signed the bottom right corner: “Gari Melchers.”
Gari Melchers, The Sisters, c. 1895, oil on canvas, Gift of Curt H. Reisinger, 1957.4.2

The Sisters

Gari Melchers · c. 1895 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1957.4.2

Gari Melchers, Head of a Boy, c. 1890-1900, charcoal on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase), 2015.19.330

Head of a Boy

Gari Melchers · c. 1890-1900 · charcoal on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.19.330

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Household Duties

Gari Melchers · c. 1890 · oil a l'essence over graphite on wove paper mounted to paperboard ·  Accession ID  2015.19.380

One of two pale-skinned women standing by a window reads a letter and smiles in this vertical painting. Both women wear white caps. The woman reading the letter is the younger of the pair, and she stands to our left. She holds the paper to catch the light coming from the window, which is mostly covered with a white and pink-checked curtain. Her body faces us, but she turns her smooth-cheeked face to the letter in her hands. Her eyebrows are lifted, and her closed lips curve in a faint smile. She wears a wide-sleeved, black shirt over a white garment and a long brown skirt. The other, older woman to our right stand with her body angled to our left. She holds another piece of paper in one hand and clasps that wrist with her other hand. Her head tips away from us and she gazes down, facing our left in profile. Lines on her cheeks suggest her age. She wears a brown and black apron over a butter yellow, long-sleeved shirt that buttons at the wrists. Her hands are clasped in front of a marine-blue skirt. A table between us and the second woman holds two bowls, one with a wooden utensil, and a skein of red yarn with a half-knitted sock or stocking. The drawer facing us is open. The window is set deep into the thick wall, and a picture of a bearded man with long hair glowing with a gold halo hangs on the inside surface of the window frame between the women. The wall is mottled peanut brown.
Gari Melchers, The Letter, 1882, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Edward C. and Mary Walker Collection), 2016.23.5

The Letter

Gari Melchers · 1882 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2016.23.5

Bibliography

1928

  • Lewis-Hind, Henriette. Gari Melchers, Painter. New York, 1928.

1984

  • Dreiss, Joseph G. Gari Melchers: His Works in the Belmont Collection. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1984.

1986

  • Stott, Annette. "American Painters Who Worked in the Netherlands, 1880-1914." Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1986.

1990

  • Lesko, Diane. Gari Melchers: A Retrospective Exhibition. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1990 (followed by tour to 4 other venues).

1998

  • Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 3-4.