Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont will hold the spotlight exhibition “Memorable Madonna: The Art Institute of Chicago’s Mother and Child” from Wednesday, March 5 through Sunday, June 1. This is the third of an ongoing series of Spotlight Exhibitions intended to highlight significant individual paintings or small groups of special interest paintings.
Visitors can view Melchers’ most beloved and widely recognized mother and child painting, the Art Institute of Chicago’s Mother and Child, in the Pavilion Gallery as well as six related canvases and preparatory works drawn from the Gari Melchers Home and Studio’s collection. Among them, Melchers’ two pastels Mother and Child and Woman and Child are particularly notable for their expressive power.
“For quite a long while the Mother and Child was one of the best loved images at the Art Institute,” curator Joanna Catron said. “It was reproduced as a framed print and on calendars and day books. Judging by the frequency of the inquiries I receive, dusty old reproductions are uncovered in someone’s granny’s attic at least once a week! Melchers’ iconic image has such a timelessness about it that these “attic miners” often mistake it for an old world masterpiece. Wouldn’t that tickle Melchers?”
Catron will give an illustrated presentation “Lovelier than All Else: Paintings of Mothers and their Children by Gari Melchers,” on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11 at 2 pm in the Pavilion. Catron’s talk and the exhibition are included in the price of admission, $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 6-18. Admission is free for children age 5 and under, and members of Friends of Belmont.
Gari Melchers Home and Studio is a 26-acre estate and former residence of the artist Gari Melchers and his wife Corinne. The property, which is operated by the University of Mary Washington, is both a Virginia Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Located at 224 Washington St. in Falmouth, Va., a quarter mile west of the intersection of U.S. 1 and U.S. 17, it is open daily with an admission charge. The museum also serves as the official Stafford County Visitor Center.
For directions and other information, call (540) 654-1015 or visit the museum website at www.GariMelchers.org.