Gari Melchers

(Am. 1860-1932)

National Golf Links

Oil on canvas, framed

Signed l.l., signed and titled on verso

18" x 22" actual, 27 1/4" x 31 1/8" framed

Provenance:

Private Collection, Navasota, Texas

Literature:

Located in Southampton, New York, the National Golf Links course was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, often considered the father of golf course architecture, and opened to players in 1911. Macdonald chose the site at the far eastern end of Long Island for its naturally sandy landscape, which mirrored the seaside courses he had played in Scotland, and in 1916 he made one notable change – enclosing a utilitarian water tower alongside the 16^th green with the more aesthetically pleasing windmill that still stands today. In 1919, artist Gari Melchers completed a portrait of Macdonald and his caddy posed at the National with the iconic windmill in the distance, and it is also likely around this time that he created his easel painting of the windswept dunes and windmill in our auction. A work by the same title was shown at his solo exhibition at Montross Galleries in February 1919. 

Melchers and Macdonald enjoyed an ongoing friendship through the 1920s, with the artist occasionally passing the winters visiting Macdonald at his Tucker Town, Bermuda estate, which bordered another Macdonald-designed course, the Mid-Ocean Club.

Exhibited:

(Possible) Pictures by Gari Melchers, Montross Galleries, New York, NY, January 28-February 15, 1919