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. Premier paintings of this period are The Hunters, Nelson Berry’s Store, St. George’s Church and Young Woman Sewing.
Gari Melchers: American Master
Gari Melchers and his role as the Telfair Museum’s Fine Arts Advisor
Gari Melchers’ Biography, National Gallery of Art
Return From Oblivion: Reassessing the Art of Gari Melchers by Stephen May