International studio (31.1907)

Gari Melchers


child’s head by gari melchers

for intelligent novelty, for experimentation, for re-
search into new fields, and the variousness of the man
may be seen by a look through the changing themes
of his pictures, from portraits to simple Dutch peas-
ants, from themes of deep religious import to brave
transcripts of athletes and street types. He can
make the man of commerce who has won recogni-
tion among his business associates look the part of
the successful financier, and he can paint ado-
lescence and give it the charm, the unconscious
charm, of infanthood; or, with tender sentiment, he
■can convey the sense of beautiful girlhood and, again,
portray the dignity and sweetness of advancing
years, and all this with spontaneity and an absence
of visible effort.
I recall him at the beginning of the eighties as an

attractive figure in the Latin
Quarter, where we were stu-
dents together. More than
most men he seemed full of
what the French call “la joie
de vivre, ” and I can see him
now in his berri and student
clothes, loosely cut and worn
with such ease. The conta-
gious smile, the bon camarad-
erie and the kindly spirit were
then, as now, in evidence.
Live and let live seemed to be
his motto, and he had ever a
kindly word for his confreres.
He knew what the art life
meant, for he was nurtured
in its atmosphere. His father,
a German born, who had set-
tled in Detroit, was a sculptor
who had known discourage-
ments, artistic and financial,
for I am sure the plastic arts
were far from receiving full ap-
preciation in Michigan in those
early days. Apupilof Carpeaux
in Paris, the elder Melchers
soon saw the promise of the
son, and bid him Godspeed,
for it was his to make the sac-
rifice that the lad should follow
his true bent. There was an
uncle of Gari Melchers, who
had been Archbishop of
Cologne and who, about 1883,
having become a cardinal, was
stationed at Rome. Despite
the serious student work of
the young man, it was not, it seemed, until after a visit
to Italy, where he stopped with his uncle, that Gari
Melchers obtained a grip on himself, for almost
immediately on his return he began to attract seri-
ous attention and opened our eyes in the Quarter
to the possibilities he possessed. After this there
was never for a moment doubt for his future. With
each new canvas the man seemed to advance and to
have some message worth recording, and all reeked
of health and virility, with, of course, technical
capacity as well. By 1886, the official art world of
Paris sat up and took notice of his The Sermon, a
picture he had painted in Holland, of some peasants
in characteristic attitudes, sitting in a church. The
work had been thought out with great care. There
were youth, middle age and old age among the

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