Arthur Meltzer (American 1893-1989) "Antique Crucifix" Oil painting on masonite

Arthur Meltzer (American 1893-1989) "Antique Crucifix" Oil painting on masonite and housed in a custom Frederick Harer frame. Signed lower right "Arthur Meltzer" and titled on verso.

Arthur Meltzer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1893. He began his first art training at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts. After World War I, he pursued his art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Robert Kochler, Joseph Pearson, and Daniel Garber. In 1921, Meltzer won a Cresson European Scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which enabled him to travel to and study in England, France, Italy, Spain, and Holland.

In addition to the traveling scholarship, Meltzer received many other awards and honors from the Woodmere Art Museum, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gold Medal Award from the Art League of Lagonier Valley.

He had exhibitions throughout the United States, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Woodmere Art Museum where his art became part of the permanent collection. In addition, his work is represented in other museum permanent collections at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Storrs College in Connecticut, and the Moore College of Art among others.

Meltzer was a member of the Woodmere Art Museum, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and many others. He taught at the Moore College of Art for twenty-four years where he acted as chairman of the Fine Arts department. There he met his future wife of sixty-one years, Paulette van Roekens, a painter and instructor at the Moore College of Art.

Meltzer retired from teaching in the 1940's and he and his wife lived in their Trevose home until representatives for the Pennsylvania Turnpike purchased their property. In 1949, they moved to Huntingdon Valley, where he lived the remainder of his life in a home largely built by Arthur.

He died at the age of ninety-five in July of 1989. His paintings vary in subject matter, ranging from painting to life drawing, to anatomy and portraiture. His painterly style reveals itself in his many still lives as well as in his beautifully rendered landscapes of Bucks and Berks Counties and Mystic, Connecticut.