Forty Years on the Hill

MWC president Prince Woodard giving remarks at Belmont’s opening day on Oct. 19, 1975. Director Dick Reid is sitting.

On October 19, 1975, Mary Washington College President Prince Woodard presided over the public opening of the Gari Melchers Memorial Gallery, making the artist’s Belmont home and painting studio available to the public on a regular schedule for the first time.

The opening of the museum took over twenty years to accomplish, in the face of numerous governance decisions by the Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the University of Virginia and finally Mary Washington College, all of which had involvement in the winding road of acceptance and implementation of Corinne Melchers’ wishes as outlined in her 1942 gift to the Commonwealth, which was effective at her death in 1955.

Gari and Corinne Melchers purchased Belmont in 1916, finding a pleasant country retreat similar to what they had enjoyed for many years in Egmond, Holland, where Gari was able to concentrate on his work away from the distractions of Paris, where his professional life was centered. After leaving Europe during the turmoil of the war years, Gari established a studio in New York City, but again longed for a rural retreat that he found at Belmont.

During his sixteen years in Virginia, Gari Melchers involved himself in the cultural life of his adopted state, eventually being named chair of the Virginia Arts Commission in 1932. From that post he oversaw the refurbishment of the state capitol building decorations and statuary, and began the development of what was to become the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. After his death later that year, Corinne was appointed to his position on the commission and became one of the founding trustees of the VMFA when it opened in 1935. She had developed a close relationship with Thomas Colt, the museum’s first curator and director, and spurred by a VMFA memorial exhibition of Gari’s work in 1938, by 1942 had worked out a plan to deed Belmont and its collections to the museum at her death.

By the time of Corinne’s passing in 1955, and the subsequent transfer of the property and art collections to the Commonwealth, the administration of the VMFA and the reputation of Gari Melchers in art circles had changed considerably. No longer was Melchers considered an important American artist, and his Falmouth home had become run down and in need of major repairs. The VMFA board almost immediately sought to be relieved of the burden of supporting what they saw as a white elephant fifty miles from Richmond. Fredericksburg’s Mary Washington College, then part of the University of Virginia, was approached and accepted the responsibility for overseeing the site, but could not provide funding for either staff or major improvements that would allow public use. It was not until 1975, under a new college administration that was committed to opening the site as a public museum, that Corinne’s wishes were finally carried out.

Since that autumn day forty years ago, the museum now known as Gari Melchers Home and Studio has kept alive Mrs. Melchers’ goal of preserving and celebrating the now revived artistic legacy of her accomplished husband, and providing a public setting in which to enjoy his art and the historic locale that they so lovingly maintained.

In the early years under Belmont’s first director, Richard Reid, only the first floor of the house and the studio were open a few days a week, staffed by volunteers. In 1984, under the guidance of Reid, an important illustrated reference book, Gari Melchers: His Works in the Belmont Collection, was published by MWC professor Joseph Dreiss. By the mid-1980s hours had expanded to seven days a week, and Reid’s successor Peter Grover leveraged state and private funds to restore the original house and modernize the utilities to both preserve the collections and increase the comfort of visitors. It was at this time that a major retrospective exhibition of Gari Melchers’ best work traveled the country, reviving public and critical interest in his place in American painting.

In the early 90s, under current director David Berreth, the formal gardens were restored with the help of the Garden Club of Virginia, which has continued to support the restoration of the estate’s landscape based on the voluminous photographs and records saved by Mrs. Melchers. In 1995 a former garage was converted into a visitor center and museum shop to welcome guests and increase revenues. The building now also serves as the official Stafford County Visitor Center, promoting regional tourism and the study of local history.

By 2001 the original studio building was fully restored to provide a safe, climate controlled facility in which to house a rotating display over 500 works by Gari Melchers. This thoroughly professional venue allows the museum to borrow major works and exhibitions from other museums around the country. And in 2006 a new public event pavilion and collection storage facility was completed, allowing the museum to host a wide variety of public educational programs, concerts, and workshops, along with private events like wedding receptions and business retreats. All of this work was accomplished through combinations of private and state funding, which demonstrated the depth of support from the now University of Mary Washington, and a cadre of local donors and private foundations focused on historic preservation.

Today, Gari Melchers Home and Studio hosts visitors from every corner of the world, and is a regular stop for local residents and regional guests. Corinne Melchers’ dream has been realized, and we celebrate her vision and dedication to art and its ability to endure and inspire, as it has for over forty years on the hill overlooking Falmouth.

 

Gari Melchers: Left or Right Handed?

Very often visitors to Belmont will see the many Gari Melchers self-portraits and paintings of him by other artists, as well as historical photographs, and ask us whether he painted with his left or right hand.

For many artists of earlier generations, before the advent of photography or whose self-portraits were limited to head and shoulders views, their  handedness  has been determined (as much as possible) through analysis of handwriting or the direction of brush strokes, or even by the shape and location of the thumb holes or paint remnants on surviving palettes.

For Gari Melchers, who came of age during the expansion of popular photography in the late 19^th century, the question is easy to answer.  Looking at a photo of Gari in his New York studio he is holding his brush in his right hand.

 

 

The same is true of two paintings of Gari by other artists.  Fritz Strobentz  painted a young Gari in a Dutch church and his wife Corinne painted him working at Belmont.

 

 

The one image that seems to confuse visitors is the painting currently on loan to Belmont from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, In the Studio, Hugo Reisinger and Gari Melchers.  In this painting, Gari seems to be painting with his left hand.  However, we must realize that he painted himself while looking in a mirror! Thus the orientation is reversed, as it is in all self-portraits painted from life (as opposed to using a photograph, which would show the correct orientation).

Gari Melchers was right handed.

 

Springtime at Belmont

Springtime has always been a magical time at Belmont. The gardens are always at their peak around Easter, and Corinne Melchers made sure that her plantings were both colorful and plenty. With the help of the Garden Club of Virginia, we are fortunate to have been able to restore her garden plan and selections to their original variety and beauty.

St George’s Church

Early Spring Landscape

Gari Melchers also saw springtime as one of his favorite times for painting outdoors, especially at Belmont and the environs of Falmouth and Fredericksburg.

The brilliant colors of St. George’ s Church and Early Spring Landscape embody his late career impressionist delight in breezy landscapes that are among his most popular today.

One of the traditions that Gari and Corinne followed was holding an Easter Egg Hunt on the grounds for the children of their friends and neighbors. They included a Punch and Judy puppet show in the large main hall of the house, where the children could sit on the floor and thrill at the adventures of the hand held characters that we have heard were maneuvered by Corinne herself!

In the spirit of the Melcherses, we have tried to schedule springtime events and activities over the years that attract those who, like Corinne’s flowers, are trying to revive from the dormant winter months.

During the last few years we have hosted a free community spring open house, attracting up to 500 visitors each year. But that number pales when compared to the largest crowd ever to overwhelm Belmont – our 1992 Easter Egg Hunt.

Held in cooperation with the Stafford County Parks and Recreation Department, the April, 1992 event included all that could attract parents and their children: a petting zoo, hay wagon rides, an outdoor puppet show, house and studio tours, and of course an egg hunt for different age groups.

We estimated a turn-out of a couple of hundred children and their families. But bright sunshine and 90 degree temperatures brought out the hordes. The final count was over 700 children and another 1500 adults on the property, and monumental traffic jams on Route 17 and Washington Street. Hundreds more were turned away, and we ran out of eggs (Beware the wrath of a mother whose child did not find an egg!). But we shared Belmont and the Melcherses’ Easter tradition with guests who still remember that day when they visit now with their own families (especially if they found an egg).

While our site still can’t handle the numbers like that Easter event 23 years ago, we have tried to continue the Melcherses’ traditions in other ways.

We are currently preparing to host our Fourth Annual Beeping Egg Hunt for blind and visually impaired children, which reflects not only the historic Belmont egg hunts (see related blog post), but Corinne Melchers’ lifelong support of community services. Throughout her years at Belmont, she led historic preservation efforts (Kenmore Plantation), held Red Cross fundraisers at Belmont, sold war bonds, and volunteered distributing vitamins in the schools for the Stafford County Health Department (some remember her as “the vitamin lady”).

It is fitting that today we help children and families experience Belmont in ways that we think Corinne and Gari would have approved.

25 Years of Holidays

The upcoming December 10 Holiday Open House marks the 25^th such event that I have overseen as Director of Gari Melchers Home and Studio.  The event has evolved from a free community-wide evening packing as many as 500 visitors into a fast-paced 2 hours, to a more intimate invitational event thanking our loyal Friends of Belmont for their annual support. This year’s Holiday event is again open to the public for a nominal charge to defer expenses (Friends of Belmont are still free).

When I arrived in Fredericksburg in November of 1990, the first event I was drawn into was the Holiday Open House, which had been organized by Curator Joanna Catron since the early 1980s.  Joanna was assisted by only 5 docents at the time, who all worked several days per week giving tours (today we spread the hours among over 20 docents who average a day a week or a weekend a month).

The exterior decorations were, like today, rotated among the seven clubs of the Fredericksburg Area Council of Garden Clubs, and the interior house decorations were overseen by Joanna and often created by the docents themselves.  Fresh natural trees and greens were still used inside those days, before the concern for pest infestation and damage to the collections was as pronounced.

In 1990, we had no visitor center or museum shop, and the parking lot was a third the size of today.  Depending on the severity of the weather in mid-December, our then caretaker Bill Chandler and his wife Maxine would station themselves with flashlights to direct traffic, and if wet or snowy, Bill often had to have his old Farmall tractor out and poised to pull stuck cars out of the quickly muddy grass field that was used for overflow parking (tow trucks had to be called on more than one occasion).  We sometimes had to have the Sheriff direct traffic for us. And always in the dark—no spotlights or floodlights for visitors or cars to find their way!

Some years we had school music groups perform in the old studio, or choral groups stand on the second floor house porch to serenade visitors.  We provided cookies and punch for visitors, but learned very quickly that the cookies lasted in inverse proportion to the number of student musicians, and rarely lasted through the first hour!

Before the visitor center was opened in 1995 (and even after) waiting lines often stretched from the house porch out to the parking lot, in below-freezing temperatures, year after year.  Joanna and I would take turns bundled up as the front door greeters and marshals, letting in only as many visitors as had just left.

In 2000 we had a very special guest just before the Holiday Open House.  Willard Scott, famed television weatherman, sat himself in the parlor amidst specially installed decorations by local designer Ken Kroko to tape narration for an HGTV special called “Christmas across America.”  The filming took three days, during which all the docents got their turn chatting with the charming host, and for authenticity real fires where lit in the fireplaces for the first time in decades (with a fire marshall on duty throughout!).  Oh, and Joanna got to sit on Willard’s lap (just kidding, but many photos were taken)!

Today Belmont is much changed, but the Melchers’ home remains as welcoming and festive at the holidays as it was 25 years ago.  I look forward to welcoming the community again as we celebrate the season in style!

 

 

The Value of Gari Melchers’ Dollar

During tours, visitors often ask what Gari Melchers’ paintings sold for, or how much he earned for a portrait.

We know some of these numbers from our archives and research, but they are described in prices from the early 20th century, which seem paltry compared to today’s figures.

So to answer the questions, here are some of the numbers we know, and their comparative value today, adjusted for inflation (and deflation) using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

1908: Gari charged Charles Freer $2,500 for his portrait of Theodore Roosevelt = $64,000 today.

1916: Gari and Corinne purchased Belmont for $12,000 = $259,000 today

1929: Gari listed an income of $42,000 on his federal income tax return = $546,000 today

1955: Corinne left an endowment of $100,000 for the support of Belmont = $857,000 today

These comparisons only allow for inflation and deflation of the dollar and do not take into consideration all of the other factors that affect estimated values, such as demand, availability, average wages, world events, etc. But at least this gives us a general idea of the adjustments that must be recognized in talking about the past.

How to Read Belmont’s Sundial

During my periodic Director’s Tours and when I’m helping out with regular tours, visitors often ask me what that thing is mounted on the outside wall of the sun porch.  Most correctly guess that it is some sort of sundial, but no-one has been able to describe how it works.  So after a little research here is the answer.

When Gari and Corinne Melchers added a sun porch on the south end of Belmont’s main house in 1916, they included second floor bathrooms that connected to the two original bedrooms on that level.  They incorporated small windows in each bathroom to allow a view of the gardens, but could not place a window on the wall between the bathrooms where the plumbing pipes were installed.  To soften a visually awkward solid blank wall, the Melcherses installed a vertical sundial similar to types they may have seen in Europe.

However, for unknown reasons, it appears the couple did not add hour numbers or lines to indicate the time of day that was marked by the shadow of the dial. Perhaps they assumed that most people in their day had experience with sundials and knew how to read them, or the markings were painted over sometime in the past (someday we’ll do an investigation of the paint layers).

The images below will hopefully help solve the question of how to read Belmont’s sundial.

Mystery solved!

Here is an example of a vertical sundial showing the hour numbers and the way the shadow would move during the day to mark the time.

Another example of a vertical sundial. This one is located in downtown Frederickburg, Va at the Visitor Center.

This is Belmont’s sundial indicating the time as about 11 am.