Eighty-eight years ago today Gari Melchers slipped the bonds of earth. In the wake of his unexpected death, a great outpouring of tributes testified to a life well lived. It was evident that his passing was felt as a distinctive loss to American art. T …

Corinne Melchers, circa 1903 Our benefactress, Corinne Melchers, remains somewhat of an enigma today. Did you know she was a painter? While her surviving letters tell us about her daily activities, they fail to answer some of our more penetrating quest …

The name Gari Melchers once held true star power.  At the pinnacle of his career, Melchers occupied studios in Paris, Holland and New York, was represented in museums at home and abroad, and was a critical and commercial success. He was exceptiona …

As an expatriate in Holland, Germany, and Paris and back in the United States, every time Gari Melchers pulled up stakes he was compelled to find a new studio to work in. First considerations were always given to light —and not just any light—northern …

Gari Melchers was a painter in oil, watercolor and pastel. While some explored the possibilities of photography as an art form, the technology held little attraction for him other than how it might save him time and expense. Preliminary photographic re …

Wonderful Wallpaper Whenever American artist Gari Melchers (1860-1932) found something he thought especially aesthetically pleasing, he tended to incorporate it in his work over and over again. Whether a favorite patterned cape, a particular dress, or …

  When the National Gallery of Art opened the exhibition Degas at the Races in 1998, Peter Stroh, Gari Melchers’ great nephew, got to wondering if his uncle’s Degas painting would be included in the display. He wrote me to inquire about what I mig …

The creation of a work of art, just as with music or poetry, begins with the germ of an idea or a sudden inspiration, suggested by, say, the flash of a girl’s smile or the wind whispering in the trees. The painter is quick to express his first response …

Sitting in a doctor’s office a few years ago, I picked up an old copy of Neurology Now and read an article that intrigued me as a museum educator.  The author described a new tour, Meet Me at MoMA, introduced by the Museum of Modern Art 2006 to sp …

Sometimes just slowing down in our fast-paced world can make a considerable difference.  Taking the time to sit down and focus on a single painting in a gallery full of art can help students make considered, thoughtful, and detailed observations. …