While headed to Italy on a transatlantic cruise ship in 1902 with her mother and younger brother, twenty-one year old art student Corinne Lawton Mackall writes in her diary, I am prostrate and overjoyed at finding Gari Melchers’ name on the passenger l …

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 …

  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 …

In 2013, Belmont hired Susan Buck, Ph.D. to conduct a comprehensive interior paint analysis of the house museum.  Buck is the same conservator who worked on the house’s exterior paint research which was featured in University of Mary Washington’s …

The stone used to build the studio, summer house, and stone garage, as well as those that make our paths and garden walls, have recently been identified as being rich with dinosaur footprints. Dr. Robert Weems, research geologist for the United States …

There’s long been anecdotal evidence suggesting that Belmont’s studio and lower pasture gates originated from the grand 1834 house “Smithsonia,” located at the corner of Charles and Amelia streets in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The restoration of the exterior of the Melchers’s cow barn was completed this summer. Habalis Construction was the general contractor on the project which included straightening of the roof ridge, repairs to the old metal roof, replacement siding where …

The restoration of the gardens at Belmont is an ongoing adventure and the latest undertaking focused on restoration of five planters that belonged to Gari and Corinne Melchers. Dave Ludeker, Belmont’s Maintenance Manager, restored and painted the woode …

Springtime has always been a magical time at Belmont.