| QR Codes Come to Belmont | |
QR (Quick Response) Codes are now being used throughout the property to help disseminate information digitally.
Use your smart phone to scan the code and hardlink to additional information, articles, and web pages. |
| Lost Painting Located | |
 | | St. Genevieve by Gari Melchers |
Read about our curator's recent success story locating this formerly missing painting.
To view other Gari Melchers paintings whose whereabouts are unknown, visit our website . |
| Bus Trip | |
There are a few spaces left for the Friends of Belmont Trip to Manhattan and Long Island October 7-10.
Call Betsy Labar at 540/654-1848 to reserve your spot.
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| Dutch Blanket Warmer | |
 | | Gari and Corinne Melchers enjoyed collecting Dutch folk art. This cupboard in the Studio is a good example. |
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| Pass it on! | |
Share our latest news and events with your family, friends, and colleagues.
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| Roots House Update | |
 | | original kitchen foundation |
Work continues on the Roots house. Foundation repairs and framing of the kitchen portion is now underway. The work has uncovered many interesting details which help tell the history of this neat little house.
We hope to have the building weathertight soon. Donations are still needed to purchase roofing mterial.
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| Preschool Palette | |
Art and Max is August's theme.
This month focuses on introducing children to different types of art media.
Watch author and illustrator David Wiesner as he describes the creative process behind his many masterful books.
For more information, including the schedule through the rest of the year, visit our website.
Thurs, August 11
Mon, August 22
Tues, August 30
Classes run from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Contact Education Coordinator Michelle Crow-Dolby at 540/654-1851 to pre-register. |
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| Upcoming Exhibition | | | "William H. Johnson: An American Modern"
September 10 - December 4
 | Aunt Alice, 1940.
Aunt Alice, a portrait of Johnson's mother, is pared down to the simplest, starkest terms, but boasts strong design, a fascinating color pattern, and is a remarkably shrewd character study. Courtesy Morgan State University |
This new exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) will feature rare paintings by William H. Johnson, from the collection of the James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University. An essential figure in modern American art, Johnson (1901-1970) a virtuoso skilled in various media and techniques, produced thousands of works over a career that spanned decades, continents, and genres.
The pivotal stages of Johnson's career as a modernist painter are assembled in this group of rarely seen paintings. Every step of his artistic development is conveyed - from his post-impressionist and expressionist works of the 1920s, to his vibrant vernacular paintings from the end of his career in the 1940s. The Belmont stop on the exhibition tour is made possible by contributions to the Melchers Advisory Council Exhibition Fund.
Several related free events have been scheduled to complement the exhibition. The Smithsonian Community Grant program, funded by MetLife Foundation, is a proud sponsor of these public programs.
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| Programs & Events | |
Daily, except Wednesdays, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Regular Tours Offered on the Half Hour
This intergenerational experience allows visitors of all ages to engage in a guided tour of the historic house museum and art gallery spaces. Tours are customized to meet a family's needs and interests and are approximately one hour in length.
Up to two children are free with an accompanying, paying adult. Additional children are $5 each. Families can enjoy these special tours through Labor Day. The tour is free for Friends of Belmont.
Woodland Walk
Sunday, July 31, 2 p.m.
Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers lead this informative hike that covers a mile of trails in both woodlands and fields and touches on the historic ruins of Belmont's past. Please wear sturdy footwear as the terrain in uneven. Meet outside the Visitor Center. Free. |
| The New Yorker | |
 | | Portrait of Mrs. H, oil on canvas, by Gari Melchers |
As reported in our July newsletter, the June 27 issue of The New Yorker magazine contained an article titled "Alice's Wonderland: A Walmart heiress builds a museum in the Ozarks."
In it, writer Rebecca Mead recounts how Walton bid via phone on American paintings auctioned by Sotheby's in December 2004 from the saddle of her cutting horse.
Of the twenty million dollars Walton spent that day, she paid $932,000 for Gari Melchers' Portrait of Mrs. H. This amount was nearly 10 times the previous auction record for a Melchers' work and well beyond Sotheby's presale estimate of $80-$120,000.
Seven years ago, Alice Walton was not a well-known collector of American art. What most people didn't know was that she was quietly amassing art to eventually be housed in her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The Bentonville, Arkansas museum is scheduled to open November 11 (11-11-11).
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| Conservation Update | |
 | | Interior of Studio, oil on canvas, by Gari Melchers |
A painting executed by Gari Melchers sometime around 1910 has just returned from the conservator's studio. It pictures the light-filled interior of one of the artist's studios in Holland. It's not certain whether it depicts his first studio in Holland, located on the dunes of Egmond aan Zee, or a space he used at home at Egmond-aan-den-Hoef, or the space he was invited to use at Schuylenburg, the former home of his colleague George Hitchcock. It does include the same worktable that furnishes his studio here at Belmont. Melchers signed the painting, which indicates that he considered it finished. Yet he never framed it. Our paintings conservator found the canvas very dirty and slack, resulting in areas of paint loosening and loss. The painting has been cleaned and inpainted and its loose paint consolidated with adhesives injected with a needle.
This lovely light-infused painting is currently on display in the house. Come visit it today! |
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| Art Workshops | |
 Crash Course in KnittingSaturday, August 13
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Audience: elementary school through adult
Learn how to knit! This workshop introduces beginners to the basic tools and materials used in knitting. Participants will receive group and individualized instruction. Materials are provided for this day-long workshop. At least one project will be on its way to completion by the end of the day.
Cost: $20 members; $25 non-members. To register, contact Education Coordinator Michelle Crow-Dolby at 540/654-1851.
This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is funded, in part, by the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund. |
| Trip to Belgium and Holland | |
 | | George Hitchcock (left) and Gari Melchers in Holland with one of their models. |
April 16 - April 28, 2012
This wonderful trip combines the fascinating and beautiful sites of Belgium and Holland as well as a focus on sites relating to Gari Melchers' time in Holland. We are fortunate to again have as our tour guide Russ Head from The Travel Connection.
The $450 reservation deposit is due September 1 so don't delay! Trip brochure and registration form .
For more information, please contact Special Events Coordinator Betsy Labar at 540/654-1848. |
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Museum Shop: New Titles Arriving Daily! | |
 | | A mystery of betrayal and revenge in 1885 Richmond. |
 | | Summertime is the perfect time for bow ties. |
Visit the Museum Shop blog for more new items and books. |
 At Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont, see the richly furnished country house and working studio of American Impressionist painter Gari Melchers (1860-1932) as they appeared in the 1920s. Explore the colorful formal gardens and wooded hiking trails of the artist's 27-acre retreat. Enjoy special exhibitions of the art of Melchers and his contemporaries.
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