When American painter Gari Melchers (1860-1932) permanently returned to the United States in 1916, New York City became his commercial headquarters for the remainder of his life. But while in retreat at Belmont, this building, completed in 1924, served as both a studio and exhibition galleries.
Belmont’s studio was the last and most grandiose of three he occupied over time in Falmouth, all within the vicinity of his house. Melchers’ fellow Detroit native John Donaldson of Donaldson and Meier designed the building according to the artist’s specifications, including an enormous vaulted studio with a north window (the most desirable exposure for artists) and three sky-lighted picture galleries. It is the only room in the building that retains its original hanging rods and exposed masonry wall surface. The studio was built from large granite and sandstone blocks salvaged from the ruins of nearby old mill and bridges.
Belmont is remarkable for the robust historic integrity of the site, buildings, and collections. It is indisputably one of the best-preserved artist’s workplaces in America. The Studio houses the largest repository of Melchers’ paintings anywhere – some 1700 works – featured in rotating exhibitions spanning the whole of his career. The Studio is appointed with all its original furnishings, most of which the painter brought from his European studios, including the impressive Northern European hanging candelabra, large Dutch armoires (called Kas), work tables, portfolio table, chairs, easels and a fine collection of antique frames. A trunk jammed with etching plates, paint boxes, spattered palettes, half-empty tubes of paint and brushes of all types and sizes is on display.
Preparatory sketches and half-finished paintings by Gari Melchers, often coupled with the finished product, give visitors an ideal means for understanding the nature of the artist’s creative process.
Gari Melchers father, Julius, a classically-trained sculptor from Germany, is remembered here as Gari’s first teacher and creator of the court cupboard and cigar store Indian, a particularly specialty of the sculptor. The plaster cast heads on top of the armoires came from Julius Melchers’ studio/classroom.
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