Arthur Meltzer

Arthur Meltzer is a consummate draftsman, a master at handling paint and color and texture, and is always able to create interesting compositions.
-Drew Saunders, Western Art Digest, 1985

Artist Arthur Meltzer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1893. His art training began close to home as he had early training at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and took an apprenticeship in a local stained glass studio. After leaving home to serve in World War I, he relocated to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). While at PAFA he studied under the Pennsylvania Impressionist painters Daniel Garber and Joseph Pearson, both of whom proved greatly influential on Meltzer’s style.

In 1921, he won the prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship at PAFA and used it to travel and study throughout Europe with stops in England, France, Italy, Spain, and Holland. His exposure to art in Europe combined with his instruction at PAFA led Meltzer to follow his teachers and become a Pennsylvania Impressionist painter. He is best known for his landscapes that capture the changing seasons and different times of day. One such example is Summer Skies, painted in 1924 and now in the James A. Michener Art Museum’s permanent collection. In the painting, Meltzer has captured the Bucks County landscape in typical Pennsylvania Impressionist style, but the real focus of the work is the sky that occupies two thirds of the canvas. The massive clouds, bright blue sky, and changing shadows are not only specific to the named season, summer, but also to a unique time of day.

Soon after completing Summer Skies in 1925, Meltzer joined the faculty of the Moore Institute (now called the Moore College of Art and Design) as a fine arts instructor. A year later in 1926, he became Head of the Fine Arts Department and taught painting, drawing, and anatomy. While working he met Paulette Van Roekens, also a Moore teacher and painter and the pair quickly became friends. However, this professional friendship grew into love, and they were married in 1927. Meltzer taught at the Moore Institute until 1949 when he retired to his home in Huntington Valley where he painted and taught privately for the rest of his life.

Meltzer’s work has been exhibited at the Michener Art Museum in The Pennsylvania Impressionists (1990), Objects of Desire: Treasures from Private Collections (2005-2006), An Evolving Legacy: Twenty Years of Collecting at the James A. Michener Art Museum (2009-2010), Bucks County and the Philadelphia Sketch Club (2010), Facing Out, Facing In: Figurative Works from the Michener Art Museum Collection (2011), and The Painterly Voice: Bucks County’s Fertile Ground (2011-2012).

Education and Training
Minneapolis School of Fine Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1911-1917
Apprentice, the Ford & McNutt Stained Glass Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1911-1917
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1919-1923
Studied abroad in England, France, Spain, Italy and Holland on a Cresson Traveling Scholarship, 1921

Teachers and Influences
Robert Koehler, Joseph T. Pearson, Daniel Garber, Robert Vonnoh, Philip Hale, Arthur B. Carles, Hugh H. Breckenridge

Connection to Bucks County
Arthur Meltzer moved to Bucks County with his wife, fellow teacher and painter, Paulette Van Roekens. They lived in Langhorne and Trevose between the years 1927 and 1952, and raised two children. Meltzer exhibited widely in New Hope, Doylestown, and the surrounding area. He studied with Bucks County painter Daniel Garber and is considered a member of the New Hope School. He contributed illustrations to Bucks Cooks.

Colleagues and Affiliations
His wife, Paulette Van Roekens Meltzer, Daniel Garber, sculptor George, and his wife, writer Helen Papashvily, and painter Ben Solowey.

Arthur Meltzer exhibited at the Phillips' Mill Art Association in New Hope.

Major Solo Exhibitions
MacBeth Gallery, New York, New York, 1929
Young Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, c. 1935
Crest Galleries, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1958
Scofield Gallery, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1960
Woodmere Art Gallery, (now the Woodmere Art Museum), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1970
Newman and Saunders Galleries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Kramer Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota

Major Collections
Art Alliance of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Carlisle Art Museum, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Columbus Gallery of the Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio
James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Woodmere Art Museum (formerly named Woodmere Art Gallery), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Commissions
Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exhibition (backdrop for forestry exhibit), three murals, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1926
Sketches of Mills, Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Portrait commissions

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Professor, Philadelphia School of Design for Women, (now the Moore College of Art and Design), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1924
Head of Fine Arts Department, Philadelphia School of Design for Women, (now the Moore College of Art and Design), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1926 until 1949
Professor Emeritus, Moore College of Art and Design, 1983
Fellow, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1925

Affiliations and Memberships
Da Vinci Alliance
Philadelphia Art Alliance
Woodmere Art Gallery
Woodmere Art Gallery, Board of Directors

Major Group Exhibitions
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1922-1938, 1940-1944, 1946
National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1922
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1925
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1926
MacBeth Gallery, New York, New York, 1931
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 1940
Woodmere Art Gallery, with Paulette Van Roekens and Davis Meltzer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1944
McClees Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1948
Woodmere Art Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1949, 1983
Crest Galleries, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1958
Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1959
Chester County Art Association, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1960
Newman Contemporary Art Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1964
Newman Gallery, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1967
Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, 1980
Newman and Saunders Gallery, Wayne, Pennsylvania, 1981
The Pennsylvania Impressionists: Painters of the New Hope School, James A. Michener Art Center, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1990
Objects of Desire: Treasures from Private Collections, James A. Michener Art Museum, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 2005-2006
An Evolving Legacy: Twenty Years of Collecting at the James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2009-2010
Bucks County and the Philadelphia Sketch Club, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2010
Facing Out, Facing In: Figurative Works from the Michener Art Museum Collection, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2011
The Painterly Voice: Bucks County's Fertile Ground, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2011-2012

Publications
Bridge at Trexlers, cover of the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1981
The Window on the Arts, Literature, and Society, The Mill District, Minnesota, June, 1991

Major Awards
Cresson Traveling Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1921
Honorable Mention, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 1924-1927
Fellowship Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1925
Honorable Mention, Philadelphia Art Club, 1926
Connecticut Prize, Hartford, Connecticut, 1931
Second Prize, Woodmere Art Gallery, 1949
First Prize, Woodmere Art Gallery, 1951
Gold Medal, Fourth Pennational Artists Annual, Ligonier Art League, 1961
Williamson Prize, Phillips' Mill Art Association, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1963
Rosenau Prize, Old York Road Art Guild, 1967
Paul L. Gill Memorial Prize, Woodmere Art Gallery, 1967
Mary T. Mason Prize, Woodmere Art Gallery, 1969
Samuel Sutter Prize, Woodmere Art Gallery, 1971
Prize, Old York Road Art Guild, 1967, 1973
DeVecchi Prize, Phillips' Mill Art Association, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1975