Saturday, October 09, 2004
GARI MELCHERS
If you are from the Commonwealth of Virginia and at all acquainted with the artistic heritage of our state, that name - Gari Melchers – ought to have special meaning for you. Does it?
If not, welcome to a large group of us who now realize we have been remiss in properly remembering a fine artist who chose to built his home and studios at Falmouth, Virginia , “Belmont”, at Falmouth, Va. in Prince William County, on the north edge of Fredricksburg. He who worked there until his death in 1932 and his works are shown in some of the world's leading galleries where they have been admired and appreciated by many viewers - both art critics and average art lovers.
“Gari” Melchers was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1860. That was a friendly nickname ,too - Gari - short for his true name Julius Garibaldi. His father was Prussian-born sculptor, the boy's first art teacher and an admirer of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian patriot. The father's name was Julius so the boy was called “Gari” and the diminutive tag stuck. The early art lessons were effective. Gari, even as child, decided he did not want to be a sculptor, but, rather, chose even then to become a painter of renown.
His training, in keeping with the sentiment of his day, had to be European. He was seventeen when he entered the Royal Prussian Academy of Art, Dusseldorf, Germany. There he learned the show principles which were to show in his mature style years later - well-modeled forms, rather hard-edged realism to which he added the “old master's” - so soft, engaging, and subtle.
Then, in Paris, he studied under both Lefebvre and Boulanger . These experiences gave him the background to become the natural leader of the school of American painters in Paris. And it was in Holland at Egmond-aan-Zee that he joined with another American, George Hitchcock (1850-1913). There , they founded an Art Colony and founded a reputation as leading chroncllers of Dutch peasant life. This was where Melchers' so called “landmark:”painting titled “The Sermon,” 1886) was painted. It shows a young peasant girl asleep during a church service. The honest characterization of the working-class life became one of the the day's most beloved examples of rustic naturalism and it speaks to us today as well.
Many paintings came from that period -”The Communion”, “The Pilots”, and “The Choirmaster”being among them. They gathered a large German and American audience while sentiment ran high in both those area concerning the piety and the work ethic of the peasant class of people. In 1889 Melchers reached the height of his career when he, at twenty-nine years of age, and John Singer Sargent became he first American painters to be set apart with the Grand Prize at the Paris Universal Exposition. Geri Melchers was named to be the leading American proponent of naturalism in painting.
He did murals or the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition, in Chicago and for the new Library of Congress in Washington D.C. In 1895 In those 1890's he was also discovered as a portrait painter by such family names as Vanderbilt, Mellon and Roosevelt which assured both his reputation and his ability to earn financial rewards. He also did a series of paintings in which he coupled paintings of people with symbols of their avocation - “The Sailor and his Dog”,”The Fencer”, “The Shipbuilder.” in which the character of the person is shown through the love and attention the subject person gives to his hobby or pet. A man's true character is thus read in detail never before shown through pictures.
Melchers' career blossomed as he achieved success and he became interested in many forms of art. He served as Professor of Art at the Grand Ducal School of Art, Weimer, Germany, but World War I sent him and his wife Corinne back to the United States.. In 1915 he opened studios in the Beaux Arts building at Bryant Square, News York City, where he served well in organizational and leadership roles. When the Melchers wished to escape the confinement of the city they found an the place in Virginia which reminded them of the Egmond-aan-Zee area, and there they built a home named “Belmont” near Falmouth, Va. He became a master along with such leading American impressionists as Childe Hassan, Edward Redfield and John Twatchman – and painted accordingly. During his more advanced years Gari Melchers was named to the Virginia Art Commission and we owe much to his efforts to establish the Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts which we now enjoy. He was also chairman of the Smithsonian Commission to Establish a National Gallery of art - today's Smithsonian American Art Museum. He also served as a Trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
It strikes me as bit ironic that a man who did so much to forward the cause of art for the people and of the people, should be forgotten. It is true that the fickle regard of the public turned from objective art to other forms. Melchers works went into storage in warehouses. Now that we are, once again, appreciative of what is being called “Academic Art”....and when realism is being taken to extremes in every portion portion of our media, it seems time for a has for a new awakening to the worth of the treasure we have in the works of Gari Melchers - Virginia artist.
A.L.M. October 9, 2004 [c915wds]
Friday, October 08, 2004
PLANNED VISIT
The street address is 4305 Sulgrave Road, Richmond, and the house there looks very English and Elizabethian. It overlooks the James River and the sturdy stucco, whole- tree beams and brick construction appears to have always been there. A dignified, small sign tells me I have arrived at “Agecroft Hall.”
In truth the house was build five hundred years ago. In 1925, the state of families of Langley and Dauntesey having fallen on bad times, the place was sold at auction. The estate had fallen into some disrepair and the buyer, T. C. Williams Jr. of Richmond,Virginia, had it carefully dismantled, crated in many sections to be reassembled here within sight of the James River just as it had been in relation to Lancashire's Irwell River in England. An authentic 15the Century English manor home, transplanted to a new location in the Old Dominion.
This is one of the many places I still want to visit.. One can choose to be selective because different programs are conducted throughout the year. Right now during October Chris Novzelli, architectural historian and tour guide, will be doing a lecture tour of “Agecroft” and the surrounding area of “Windsor Farms” . Walking shoes are recommended.
Starting around Thanksgiving Day and continuing through Christmas Agecroft features the “Bellycheer Tour” detailing the entertainment customs and etiquette of the 16th and 17th centuries. Is it proper for you to sit above or below the salt at dinner? Do you usually drink beer or cider with breakfast? Do you usually eat your goblet after drinking your wine? That's the sort of problem which can be solved annually at “Agecroft” during the fall holiday season. Then, there's the special Christmas Revel itself.
“Agecroft”: is a place you can visit often because of them special events going on throughout the year. They are constantly reminding visitors of the sterling features of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1533 to 1603 when such notables as Sir Francis Drake and William Shakepeare strutted their hours on life's stage
I must make a special effort to get to Richmond and “Agecroft Hall”. It has been on my “do-it-someday”list. It has been on my tentative schedule time-after-time. Maybe we can shake loose and get over there some afternoon when the Richmond Concert Band is doing a concert, perhaps. Pictures of it reminds me so much of houses and public buildings I have seen in England and, oddly enough, at the same time, of the old Hotel Roanoke here in Virginia years ago when it was in its prime- less prim and properly painted.
“Agecroft Hall” reminds us how much we are a blend of much of the culture of Elizabethian times.
A. L. M. October 7, 2004 [c460wds]
Thursday, October 07, 2004
TOO FAST
I have often heard it said that we are living “too fast” today. In fact, I have been guilty of saying it myself and believing it as I grow older. The more years on accumulates, it seems, the faster all of life seems to move toward its logical conclusion. It's true, I am convinced, but not, necessarily because one grows older, but for a variety of reasons.
Among them, the technological revolutions in which we have been involved in recent decades, have, literally, shortened the time previously spent in doing things. In my personal experience before I, like millions of other citizens of the world at large, became “google-ized, used to spend twice as much my my time doing research seeking facts which interest d or concerned me. I maintained several shelves of twenty-four EB volumes through which I delved for hours. Now, all that information, and more, is literally at my fingertips. With “google.com” as the keystone I have the world's best information at hand in minutes.
What would you say the leading subject would be when people turn google for guidance?
Those who keep track of such things, say it is the topic: ”health.” and that can be another reason why life seems to move along faster as we advance in years. We, in this in this generation of ours, probably, spend more time dealing with personal concerns of renewal and well-being than any before us. Eighty-five percent of the requests seeking information from google.com are said to be about “health.” Being far more concerned about our individual abilities to care for our bodies, we are paying more serious attention to the package in which our lives are contained. Instead measuring time by clock and calender, many people now measure life by remembering good times as those between cures and new illnesses.
We tend to “age” as those interludes shorten.
Still another reason why life seems to move along faster as we grow older is found in a paradox concerning the status of “youth” in today's scheme. We hear it said both ways: “Kids grow up sooner and faster today.” and “When are those kids going to grow up?” I prefer the first view. It is , obviously, true that our culture requires small children to assume adult standards far sooner than they were ever permitted to do a decade or so ago. Other than the use of brighter colors, perhaps, and louder music, it is difficult to tell the difference between films and disked games intended for children and for produced average adults. But it still seems that our television network heads think all children watch network TV on Saturday mornings. Chances are a hundred and something to four that they are elsewhere on the varied dial. We dress kids as miniature adults; we speak of , to and in-front-of (in their presence) in adult terms including profanity and other evidences of vocabulary poverty.
It is true that our children are growing faster today but the good feature about is that is that it is a normal growth caused by advances in technology in our time. The very same advances are speeding the life style we oldster,as well. Don't fight it Go with it.
Go with it. Yes. But, not lightly. We have been given the key to mankind's fund of knowledge and new responsibilities to use it properly and to the best advantage of all. That's no small order.
Your part? You are already at work doing it, which is why your time is passing so swiftly!
A.L.M. October 6, 2004 [c601wds]
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
BIG BONES
In June of 1988 I jotted down some notes about a sensational new find of fossils in a rock quarry in Iowa. The cache was estimated as having been 335-million years, Since that was sixteen years ago, those bones may already have turned up on “Road Show” or perhaps marketed several time on “e-Bay” as antiques. I have decided that if people will actually offer for sale and others will buy used chewing gum once belonging to Brittany Spears, they will buy old amphibian fossils.
One of the prize catches was an unnamed amphibian which looked like a six foot salamander. It can be touted as having one of the very first critters to forgo the warm aqua areas for the crusty terra firma side of the tropical setting which was common at that time in Iowa. It is said to have been the first swamp walker.
More than five hundred fossils of fish and amphibians were dug out of that quarry near a farming village named Delta, Iowa. And it was, in l988, the largest collection of land animals ever found from the Mississippian period which managed to sustain itself from 330 to 360 million years. Whole skeletons were found and the bones were in remarkable good condition. The bones were packed in limestone deposits
At the beginning of the M-era there were no birds, mammals, or reptiles on land. They which did make it to land living had to return to the water to spawn. The reptiles are said to be the first ones to go land-solo. The did so by laying eggs and there followed, after their example, a wide variety of reptiles, birds and strange mammals, some with overlapping ribs which were common to many versions of the era's water creatures.
The site was studied by experts from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; William Penn College, Iowa; the University of Chicago, and National Geographic Society set its photographic expertize to work just after the discovery. Until that time, very few well preserved specimens of land vertebra had been found from those early times. In the 1970's a group from Cambridge University in England and Copenhagen, Denmark found a deposit of such bones in Greenland including several types of fish-like creatures not found in Iowa. They took 1500 pounds of 400-million year old bones home .
This is an especially interesting because mysterious changes occurred among the reptiles. The amphibians had been their ancestors and they took to the land. Then, came the birds came to soar through the skies, and a host of animals of many shapes, sizes and types evolved ...including human beings, in time.
A.L.M. October 5, 2004 [c452wds]
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
REDISCOVERY
We keep finding old things. Some of them, we don't remember having had in our possession, but here there are - all of a sudden – and, very often, they are welcomed with new interest and concern.
Such a place is a recently re-discovered location of ancient ruins in the State of Utah which were the base for an ancient Paleo-Indian civilization which has been, heretofore, somewhat of a mystery.
The place is known as Range Creek Canyon and it has ruins dating from about the time of Christ. It is one of those sites on a private ranch and although it has been successfully kept as a family secret by the owners for over half a century, it is now under qualified archeology administration and it is unusual in that it presents an almost pristine look at the civilization which existed there. The sites are special treasures, seemingly untouched by invaders, scavengers, inept “diggers” or souvenir collectors.
The main canyon in which these ancient people lived was owned by a Utah rancher who, for fifty years has wisely kept it a secret. Excavations which are now underway are finding a wealth of artifacts undisturbed by previous workings. There are village sites and a fortress home extending as much as nine hundred feet above the wall of one of the more impressive mountains. Study shows that these people were those who settled the Utah area about two-thousand years ago. They are thought to have originated in Asia and, after crossing the Bering Strait land bridge, settled down. They have been known for some time as the “Fremont people”. The name is alleged to be that of a Spanish explorer who never saw any of them but found settlements he thought to be theirs throughout the general Utah area. Since that time they have continued to be called by that second-hand name. Perhaps the current dig will reveal a tribal distinction through their art work and restore a more meaningful name to their family. They were judged to have been hunters and planters of a limited number of crops known at their early period. .At some time around 1250 A.D They disappeared, it seems, as soddenly as did other tribes in the area.. The fate is still a mystery the key to which might be in the Range Creek Canyon ruins..
In their Utah settlements they prospered and thus invited the enmity of at least three less-settled tribes - the Utes, Soshone and the Pauites, who, it seems, spoke a numic-language. The less militant Fremont people, lost the struggle to keep their homeland and were pushed into the rugged canyon areas where they barely survived. Thus far over three hundred sites have been designated for additional, detailed study. The public awareness of the site cam to light in June of 2004 when the newspapers detailed the land transfers involved. ^The Research people and the Utah State Legislature were alert to the need for legislation specifically designed to protect the Range Creek Canyon area. V Visitors,today, must acquire permits to visit the area, and hunting and camping have been restricted The State of Utah also funded by foot and aircraft patrols of the area. The entire nation will forever be in debt to the state of Utah for the special attention they gave to the re-discovery of such early roots North American cultures.
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This is a treasured area from which all of us may well learn many of the secrets held in the artifacts which are found there about the early human inhabitants. Two hundred and fifty households to be studied. Stone-and-mortar granaries, storage rooms and enclosures as well scores of trapizodal figures painted on the canyon walls are believed to have been done at about the time of Christ. The Fremont people; had different way of weaving,they wore animal clawed moccasins, ands they mo developed remarkable hunting and farming skills. Their everyday tool and pottery different in form and content from that of other farming- oriented tribes south of the Colorado River. Much it to be learned of their individual qualities. Highly respected by existing Indian tribes in the Utah area today many claim to be kin and speak of them as their “ancestors.”
It may well come to be that be that one of the greatest values to come out of all this project will be to rediscover in the ancient ruins, the key to the true name of these people we still call ”The Fremont People”
A. L. M. October 4, 2004. [c758wds]
Monday, October 04, 2004
THEN NOW
How do you answer when small children ask you how things were in the “olden days”?
Do you lay the un-laminated truth on them without delay, or do you feel it is necessary to edit things a bit; to patch up the fading fabric of memories before passing it along?
I'm making use of an editorial ”you” as I ask. Of course, you aren’t old enough for any kids to ask such a personal question of you. Or, are you?
Yes, you are?
Developing youngsters seek models and teen agers look to those who have made into the twenties as veterans in solving so many of the very problems which face them at their age level. The very young would often be more attracted to the manner in which a teen-ager handles a social problem, of instance, than they would seek advice from older persons who seem to be out of touch with life. They have to become grown-up themselves before they realize how much of living remains,essentially, the same over they the years.
Many children need “sounding boards” against which they can bounce ideas and concepts as they think of them - and they can do so with confidence that convinces them they are the very first to have conceived such an idea It was not the grown up man Christopher Columbus who discovered the New World. It was was in the mind of the small b[y talking with or listening to, sailors returning to harbor from afar. It was then the boy sensed a New World being somewhere. He was aware of such a place. As a teen ager that same boy came to know that such a place had to exist. The grown-up Christopher Columbus merely went out found what his young self had so confidently decided existed.
We, the “sailors” who frequent the ”harbors”of today where children gather to listen and emulate us, are currently presenting a rather severe and somewhat warped “real world”. We are in a glitzy entertainment phase right now presenting “reality” shows. The ultimate act seems to be young boys and girls eating plates of live worms. Deceit, trickery, camera legerdemain and mockery of our ethics are misused and the mess force fed to young people by peer pressure tactics defying standard norms of decency and decorum.
Far better fare is available,but it not being presented favorably. Young people will seek in you and use it to advantage,but we can't say we have made it easier for them to do so. There is even some merit in the haphazard manner in which we offer opportunity to our young. It is an uphill quest. We make it had to get,too and that builds stamina, strength and dedication.
Once again, I feel, we will be blessed with young people of ability to carry our nation forward. It seems to work out that way in spite of all we do to prevent it from doing so.
A.L.M. October 3, 2004 [c496wds]
Sunday, October 03, 2004
THE SPEEDS OF JUSTICE
Does our justice system move too slowly at times? Are we arriving at the point where real harm might result from such delays?
An item in this week's news accounts disturbed me. It noted in a small, insignificant item that one John Mohamed had been absolved of a charge of murder in which he was said to have killed a woman. The small photo was that of a well-dressed young man, and I glanced at it; turned aside to something another item – then back quickly because I realized – belatedly so - that I had looked upon the likeness - albeit a pleasant one - of the feared “beltway killers” of a year or so ago! Absolved? Cleared of a charge of killing a woman! How can that be?
Or, consider the “Laci Peterson Case”continuing as it is continuing week-after week in California. Every time a shred of possible evidence is thought to have been discovered, divined, unearthed or fabricated there is a tendency to want to start the whole thing all over again. As it drags, on more and viewers are wondering if they have added professional mystery writers to the staff to augment, enlarge, embellish, complicate and confuse the soap opera qualities of the case to make it a full-fledged magni-monster production. Certainly every aspect of the case has beer drained of all possible value. When one hears the term “beyond a shadow of a doubt” we sometimes think Justice has been stretched about as far as it can go.
Locally, I find the media has suddenly hit me in the face with a story about a crime that happened a year or two ago which has not yet been brought to trail or some sort of an end action. A great many people think of the report as that of a new crime and announce woe upon the world because of the rising crime rate.
We have the same sort of thing going right now as I write , but not in a criminal sense exactly. Mount St. Helen is on the tense brink of an eruption and I watched a show this morning which re-did redid the 1980 explosion without any in show reminders that it was “then” - not “now!” TV producers think nothing of running streamers across the face of other shows we watch , but not this one of the killer of a killer blast from Mount St. Helen years ago. We need something akin to such disclaimer streamers or banners in print version of development concerning crimes long done but no yet brought to trial
I, of course, realize that every care must be taken to assure the accused of a fair trial. Investigations must be completed to provide evidence needed to prove guilt or innocence, but a sensible amount of time spent should also be considered to be important to all concerned. The “vigilante”approach to crime is,obviously, quite wrong, but to allow cases to drag on and on with interminable investigations and extended trials, mis-trials and re-trials can also be a gross error and a marked miscarriage of true justice. Our judicial system suffers from being overcrowded with cases – many of them of a frivolus nature - and we need to clean house and tighten up on the time it take to do justice in a sensible, housekeeping fashion.
A.L.M. October 2, 2004 [c566wds]
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