Jean-Baptiste Descamps - Guerard Melder Tome Quatrieme p 280

Gerard Melder (1693 – 1754), was an 18th-century miniature and watercolor painter from the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

Biography

He was born in Amsterdam. According to

Johan van Gool Johan, or Jan van Gool (1685–1763), was a Dutch painter and writer from The Hague, now remembered mainly as a biographer of artists from the Dutch Golden Age. Life Jan van Gool was a pupil of Simon van der Does and Mattheus Terwesten.

who devoted six pages to his biography in his ''Nieuwe Schouburg'', Melder's father Cornelis Melder died when he was six, and he was named after his grandfather, the Utrecht fortifications master Gerard Melder, who published an instructional booklet in 1658 on the

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

fortifications.Gerard Melder Biography, Part 2, page 226
in ''Nieuwe Schouburg'' (with painter index), (1750) by Jan van Gool, in the ''Institute of Dutch History'' This younger Gerard Melder made copies on ivory after

Rosalba Carriera Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was an Italians, Italian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium ...

whose miniatures he collected. He became acquainted with the works of Rosalba after

Theodoor Wilkens Theodoor Wilkens or Theodorus Wilkens (alias Goedewil) (1690, Amsterdam – 1748, Amsterdam), was an 18th-century painter and draughtsman from the Dutch Republic who specialised in landscapes. Biography Nothing is known about his apprentices ...

returned from Italy with a few of them. Melder became, through practise, quite good at making Rosalba-like miniature copies of Dutch masters for snuffboxes, and later tried his hand at larger works. Van Gool mentioned copies by his hand of works by

Gerard Dou Gerrit Dou (; 7 April 1613 – 9 February 1675), also known as Gerard Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painting, Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre s ...

Adriaen van der Werff Adriaen is a Dutch form of Adrian. Notable people with the name include: * Adriaen Banckert (1615–1684), Dutch admiral *Adriaen Block (1567–1627), Dutch private trader and navigator * Adriaen Brouwer (1605–1638), Flemish genre painter * Adria ...

, and

Hans Rottenhammer Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale. Biography He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Eld ...

. In 1728 he married Margareta Schalkwijk a Velden, and in 1735 they moved to Utrecht. Van Gool used a portrait of Margaretha Wulfraet that was in Melder's possession for his engraved portrait of her. According to the RKD he was also a follower of

Herman Saftleven Herman Saftleven the Younger (1609 - 5 January 1685 (buried)), was a Dutch painter of the Baroque period. Biography Born in Rotterdam, Saftleven lived most of his life (1632–1685) in Utrecht. His brothers, Cornelis Saftleven (1607–1681) an ...

, and is known for etchings and watercolors as well as his copied miniatures on ivory after old masters.Gerard Melder
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

He died in Utrecht.

References

Gerard Melder
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Melder, Gerard 1693 births 1754 deaths 18th-century Dutch painters 18th-century Dutch male artists Dutch male painters Painters from Amsterdam