About the Artwork
The Fencing Master is one of two oil paintings of this subject by Melchers. They belong to a small group of full-length pictures of men dressed for their occupational roles. These works are not commissioned portraits but genre paintings in which the individuals are posed in characteristic settings and clothes. Here the emphasis is on the design of the painting rather than the particular identity of the subject, French painter Ernest Noir.
The Fencing Master
ca. 1895
Gari Melchers
1860-1932
American
Unknown
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 81 1/4 × 39 1/2 inches (206.4 × 100.3 cm) Framed: 95 1/4 × 54 × 3 inches (241.9 × 137.2 × 7.6 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Gift of Edward Chandler Walker
13.9
Public Domain
Markings
Signed, lower right: Gari Melchers
Provenance
Edward C. Walker. 1913-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Supplement to the Handbook of Paintings. Detroit, 1907, p. 18.
Burroughs, Clyde. “’The Fencing Master’ by Gari Melchers.” Bulletin of the DMA 7, 2 (April 1913): pp. 17-18 (ill.).
Trask, John E.D. and J. Nilsen Laurvik, eds. Catalogue Deluxe of the Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Vol. 1. San Francisco, 1915, no. 3674.
Bryant, Lorinda Munson. “What Pictures to See in America.” New York, 1915, pp. 235-236 (fig. 149).
Biographical Sketches of American Artists, 3rd ed. Lansing, 1915, p. 164. [as A Fencer]
Paintings by Gari Melchers. Exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1918, no. 15.
Catalogue of Painting, Sculpture, and Contemporary Arts and Crafts. Detroit, 1920, p. 135, no. 213.
Bulletin of the DIA 1, 7 (1920): pp. 104, 107 (ill.).
Paintings by Gari Melchers. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, 1923, no. 3.
Piper, Adaline. “Gari Melchers.” American Magazine of Art 15 (February 1924): p. 81.
Paintings and Sculptures of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1927, p. 183.
Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Gari Melchers. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1927, pp. 3-4, 7, no. 14.
Lewis-Hind, Henriette. Gari Melchers, Painter. New York, 1928 (ill.).
Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit. Detroit, 1930, no. 344.
Exhibition of a Retrospective Collection of Paintings Representative [sic] of the Life Work of Gari Melchers, N.A. Exh. cat., Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery. Buffalo, 1930, pp. 5, 8.
Paintings and Sculpture of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1937, p. 206.
Rich, Daniel Catton. “Fifty Years at Chicago.” The Magazine of Art 32, 12 (1939): p. 707 (ill.).
American Painting. Exh. cat., University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, 1940, no. 33.
The Detroit Institute of Arts Paintings and Sculpture Illustrated—A Companion to the Catalogue, 3rd ed. Detroit, 1943, p. 202 (ill.).
The Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings, 2nd ed. Detroit, 1944, p. 89, no. 344 (ill.).
Michigan Artists, 1901-1951: An Exhibition Arranged in Commemoration of Detroit’s 250th Birthday. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1951, p. 6.
Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1960, p. 258 (ill.).
Gibson, A.H. Artists of Early Michigan. Detroit, 1975, p. 174 (ill.).
The Metropolitan Opera on Tour. Detroit, 1976 (ill.).
Reid, Richard S. The Permanent Collection of Works by Gari Melchers at Belmont: The Gari Melchers Memorial Gallery. Fredericksburg, VA, 1982 (ill.).
Dreiss, Joseph. Gari Melchers. Charlottesville, 1984, pp. 105-106 (fig. 37, pl. 11).
Dewhurts, K. B. Macdowell and M. Macdowell. “The Art of Julius and Gari Melchers.” Antiques 125, 4 (April 1984): pp. 862-873 (pl. 3).
Simon, Robin. The Portrait in Britain and America. Oxford, 1987, pp. 208-209 (ill.).
Artists of Michigan in the Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat., Muskegon Museum of Art. Muskegon, MI, 1987, p. 140, no. 28.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Gari Melchers, The Fencing Master, ca. 1895, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Edward Chandler Walker, 13.9.
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