"The Unpretentious Garden"

Gari Julius Melchers, 1905

American Impressionist Artist

Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA

…at the turn of the century, Melchers entered a phase in which he emphasized vibrant color, natural lighting, looser brushwork and decorative pattern. This modified Impressionist style provided a vehicle for his new interest in the subject of modern women and children portrayed in beautiful interiors and gardens: At Home, (Winged Victory); The Unpretentious Garden, The Open Door and The Christening).  Interestingly, the pronounced gaiety of his work in this period coincides with his recent marriage to a young American art student, Corinne Mackall.  

Gari Melchers to his fiancé, Corrine Mackell:

“Hopskin Smith (the American painter) once said, ‘it takes two to paint a picture, one to paint it, and the other to hit him over the head with a club when it’s time to stop’ and in the future, you will have to be that other fellow.”

Adapted from the University of Mary Washington website.

Gari Julius Melchers

Unknown Title

1909 

 

 

 

"Margot"

Auguste Renoir, 1879

Portrait of Marguerite-Therese Berard

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"Renoir depicts the five-year-old daughter of his devoted patron Paul Berard, a diplomat and banker whom he met in 1878. The artist often summered at the Berards' country home in Wargemont, near Dieppe, on the Normandy coast, where he painted decorative pictures for the house and a veritable family album of portraits, ranging from formal commissions to more intimate works that reflect a genuine fondness for the four Berard children. According to Margot's nephew, Renoir painted this spirited portrait to "cheer her up" after a disagreeable lesson with her German tutor had brought her to tears" 

Gallery Label

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Andrew Wyeth

  “I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it…I always want to see the third dimension of something…I want to come alive with the object.”

Andrew Wyeth