Economist Writing Every Day

Who’s your favorite artist? Warhol? Picasso? Van Gogh? Maybe someone much earlier, such as Michelangelo or Titian? Of course, there is something about the style or subjects that you enjoy. But something about the artist’s personal life might also matter to you. Personally, I’m a fan of Hieronymus Bosch, about whom we know little, and William Blake, who had some social and political opinions that would still be considered liberal even today.

Picasso, Dalle, and Warhol were all eccentric. Picasso had multiple girlfriends who didn’t get along, Dalle enjoyed exemplifying surrealism in his dress and behavior, and Warhol was a reclusive hoarder. Their eccentricity increases their allure and fosters an aura of mystique that they are privy to some unknown truths.

Other artists breathed lives of tragedy. Van Gogh had seizures and depression. Frankly, anyone born before 1850 lost siblings, children, spouses, or parents to sickness. Artist weren’t and still aren’t usually ‘well-off’, which means that life was hard for them. We can’t help but to imbue paintings and sculptures with a heavy sense of suffering, even if we just tint the details with hints of gravity.

Recently, I visited the Virginia home of Gari Melchers – a 19th-20th century artist I’d never heard of, but who was quite successful. By all accounts, Melchers was a top tier artist for his time and adept in a variety of styles. He was renowned for his portraits, including the likes of Mark Twain and Teddy Roosevelt.

Melchers’ father was a skilled and successful wood sculptor who afforded to send him to study in Europe. Melchers trained in The Netherlands and then taught in Germany. He also spent time in Italy and enjoyed painting both portraits and people doing common work. While traveling, he met his wife, Corinne, who was also a skilled painter. Together, they travelled, painted, and accumulated a small museum’s worth of pieces.

Melchers does not fit our idea of a typical artist. He returned to the US with his wife after the onset of WWI because life in Germany became ‘less comfortable’. Both Melchers came from money, enjoyed great success, and together owned a home in New York and a handsome estate in what is now Fredericksburg, Virginia. Gari Melchers enjoyed being married and often painted domestic scenes of mothers and their infants. His styles included Dutch realism and Impressionism, and he was famous during his lifetime. Later in life, his subjects became somewhat more risqué, painting nudes with fiery red hair – though they were never lewd.

The Melchers had no children, but they hosted a citywide Easter egg hunt every year. After they passed, they left the vast majority of their estate to the “people of Virginia”. You can now visit their estate which includes their gallery, home, and museum that’s curated and managed by The University of Mary Washington.

Melchers didn’t have the same tragic or eccentric accoutrements that many in his profession share. He was trained, then trained others, and enjoyed success that made him very comfortable financially. He was emotionally stable, enjoyed married life, and was a figurehead in his local community. His life was not turbulent. Maybe that’s why you’ve never heard of him.