The Sisters

c. 1895

Gari Melchers

Painter, American, 1860 - 1932

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.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Curt H. Reisinger

  • Dimensions

    overall: 150 × 100.4 cm (59 1/16 × 39 1/2 in.)
    framed: 184.15 × 133.67 × 17.78 cm (72 1/2 × 52 5/8 × 7 in.)

  • Accession

    1957.4.2

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Hugo Reisinger [1856-1914], New York, by 1908; his wife, Edmée Busch Reisinger [later Mrs. Charles Greenough, d. 1955], New York; their son, Curt H. Reisinger [d. 1964], New York; gift 1957 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1895

  • Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895, no. 869, as La poupée.

  • 65th Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1895-1896, no. 227, as The Doll.

  • 8th Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, 1895, no. 221, as The doll.

1896

  • Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Berlin, 1896, no. 1459.

1897

  • 2nd Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897-1898, no. 149.

1898

  • Possibly Jubeljahr Kunst-Ausstellung, Vienna, 1898.

1899

  • Exposition Triennale de Gand, Ghent, Belgium, 1899.

1900

  • 13th Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculptures by American Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, 1900, no. 160, as The doll.

  • Fine Arts Exhibit of the United States of America, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900, no. 178.

1901

  • Possibly Internationale Kunstausstellung, Dresden, 1901, no. 466.

1902

  • Exhibition in Karlsruhe, Germany, 1902 (no information available).

1903

  • Possibly 5th Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, Venice, 1903, no. 21 in Sala D.

1904

  • Universal Exposition [Commemorating the Louisiana Purchase 1803], St. Louis, 1904, no. 507.

1905

  • Exposition universelle et internationale, Liège, Belgium, 1905, no. 49, as Les deux soeurs.

1907

  • Erste Internationale Mitglieder-Ausstellung, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1907, no. 16, repro.

1908

  • Paintings by Gari Melchers, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, March-April 1908, no. 3.

  • Pictures by Gari Melchers, Saint Botolph Club, Boston, March 1908, no. 9.

  • Gari Melchers, Cottier and Company, New York, January-February 1908, no. 6.

1918

  • Paintings by Gari Melchers, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1918, no. 9.

1919

  • Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Gari Melchers, Copley Society, Boston Art Club Galleries, 1919, no. 31.

1923

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Gari Melchers, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1923, no. 17.

1927

  • Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Gari Melchers, Detroit Institute of Arts, October 1927, no. 1, repro.

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Gari Melchers, The Century Association, New York, February 1927.

1929

  • Paintings and Drawings by Gari Melchers, The Anderson Galleries, New York, 1929, no. 18.

1930

  • Exhibition of a Retrospective Collection of Paintings Representative of the Life Work of Gari Melchers, N.A., Buffalo Fine Arts Academy/Albright Art Gallery, 1930, no. 12, repro.

  • Paintings by Gari Melchers, N.A., Thomas J. Mitchell and Thirty Cleveland Artists, Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, New York, 1930, no. 6.

1932

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Gari Melchers, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 1932-1933, no. 15.

1934

  • A Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Gari Melchers, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1934, no. 66.

1938

  • Gari Melchers: A Memorial Exhibition of His Work, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1938, no. 93.

1970

  • Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1970-1984.

1987

  • Extended loan for use by Vice President and Mrs. Bush, Washington, D.C., 1987-1989.

1990

  • Gari Melchers: A Retrospective Exhibition, Mus. of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Telfair Academy, Savannah, Georgia; National Academy of Design, New York; Detroit Institute of Arts; Virginia Mus. of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1990-1991, no. 26, repro.

1993

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Swanee Hunt, U.S. Embassy residence, Vienna, Austria, 1993-1997.

1999

  • Paris 1900: 'The American School' at the Universal Exposition, Montclair Art Mus.; Mus. of Am. Art of the Penn. Acad. of the Fine Arts, Phil.; Columbus Mus. of Art; Elvehjem Mus. of Art, Univ. of Wisc., Madison, 1999-2001, no. 46, repro.

2001

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador William Stamps Farish III, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 2001-2004.

2009

  • Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati; The Grand Rapids Art Museum; Singer Museum, Laren, The Netherlands, 2009-2011, no. 43, repro.

Bibliography

1909

  • Brinton, Christian. "The Collection of Hugo Reisinger, Vol. I: German and American Pictures." International Studio 38 (August 1909): 29-37, illus. 33.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 82, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 198, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 180, repro. 182.

1990

  • Lesko, Diane. Gari Melchers: A Retrospective Exhibition. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1990: 92-95, 195-196 (followed by tour to 4 other venues).

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 235, repro.

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: 4-7, color repro.

2001

  • Bruson, Jean-Marie, and Fischer, Diane P., eds. Paris 1900: Les Artistes Américains à l'Exposition Universelle. Exh. cat. Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 2001: 43, 48 fig. 42, 49 (not in the exhibition).

  • Paris 1900: Les artistes Américains à L'exposition Universelle. Exh. cat. Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Paris, 2001: 14 fig. 2, 15, 43, 48 fig. 42, 49.

Inscriptions

lower right: Gari Melchers.

Wikidata ID

Q20190517

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