Emile Gruppe, Pier from 13th South, oil on canvas, 24 by 19.75 inches. Sighed lower right, titled verso.
Emile Gruppe was a noted American artist and art educator whose fame as a landscape and marine painter has only grown since his death in 1987. The son of Dutch artist Charles Paul Gruppe, Emile Gruppe was born in Rochester, New York in 1896 and grew up in Holland. He returned with his family to the United States at the outset of World War I. At fifteen Gruppe started his career as a sign painter in Rochester, bribed into going off on a painting trip into the mountains with his father by the promise of a new shotgun he found more desirable than a palette. Later Gruppe entered the Art Students’ League in New York, continuing the family tradition in art,
One of his first visits to Florida was at the Hotel Jefferson in Palm Beach in late January 1917. Gruppe would not exhibit or teach in Florida until after the end of World War II. By the summer of 1942, when he opened the Emile Gruppe Art School in Gloucester, Massachusetts, he was recognized as a master of American art with Gloucester his home.
When Gruppe opened an exhibit at the Miami Beach Art Center in January 1952, he was a member of the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York City and had one-man exhibits at the Currier Museum, Manchester, New Hampshire, The Akron Art Institute, Ohio, Findlay Galleries, Chicago and Kansas City and the Robert Hull Fleming Museum in Burlington, Vermont. His work could be found in the Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, the Butler Museum, Youngstown, Ohio, the White House, Washington, D.C. and the J. P. Morgan Collection.
Emile Gruppe, Pompano Shed, oil on canvas, 25 by 39 inches. Signed lower right, titled verso.
A friend of Ralph Evinrude (chairman of Outboard Marine Corporation) and his wife actress Francis Langford, Gruppe spent time on the East coast of Florida at the Evinrude, Langford estate on Jensen Beach during the 1950’s. Langford, who was born and raised in Lakeland, Florida and famous as the “GI Nightingale” during World War II, collected Gruppe paintings.
Emile Gruppe, Palms, Naples, Florida, oil on canvas, 30 by 25 inches. Signed lower right, titled verso.
Gruppe loved the beach at Naples and began spending time there in 1955, exhibiting at McNichol’s Art Gallery. In January 1957 he started as an instructor in landscapes at the Longboat Key Art Center in Sarasota, teaching and giving art demonstrations there through the winter seasons, until 1962, when he purchased a home in Naples.
Emile Grupe, The Gateway (old Banyon Tree, Naples, Florida, oil on canvas, 30 by 36 inches. Signed lower right, titled verso.
The Tampa Tribune (January 8, 1961) reported on Gruppe giving a demonstration of his technique at the Federation of Women’s Clubs Building in Tampa, “Painter of landscapes and marines Emile A. Gruppe will demonstrate his techniques next Sunday afternoon at Federation of Woman’s Clubs Building, Horatio St. Mr. Gruppe, demonstrating in Tampa for the first time, is being sponsored by Tampa Realistic Artists Inc. An artist of superlative quality with wide range popularity in appealing subject matter, Mr. Gruppe is listed in Who’s Who in American Art. Represented throughout the nation in various collections, his works are found in the White House in Washington, D.C.; the collections of J.P. Morgan and Roger Babson, and in the Silberman collection in Montreal, Canada…Pure and vibrant colors wind their way in his work through his application of confident brush strokes. His subjects are remindful of those places ‘where everybody has been’ and he paints scenes the way people usually remember them. After demonstrating last spring in Longboat Key Art Center, Mr. Gruppe gained Florida artists for his East Gloucester, Mass., painting classes. He is a member of the Longboat Key Art Association and has exhibited there since 1958. The artist conducts a summer school for outdoor painting and demonstrations in East Gloucester and spends his winters on Florida’s East Coast.”
The Evinrude Langford collection of Gruppe’s work was exhibited at Fort Pierce’s Elliott Museum in February 1961 and again at the Fort Pierce Art Gallery in March 1963. Gruppe is quoted by the Fort Pierce News Tribune (March 31, 1963), “It is very difficult to catch the Florida scene—the brilliant colors make the landscape almost too pretty. No one has even come anywhere as near as getting the feeling of Florida, as I see it, as Beanie does.” Beanie Backus was director of the gallery.
Emile Gruppe, Sea Grape, oil on canvas, 20 by 30 inches. Signed lower right, titled verso.
In February of 1963 Gruppe was instructing a group of women from the Miami branch of the National League of American Pen Women. Most of these “students” were accomplished professional artists who had one-man exhibits of their own. Gruppe continued his lecture demonstrations and exhibits at the Longboat Art Center and the McNichols Art Gallery in Naples through 1972. On January 28, 1972 the Naples Daily News, pictured Emile Gruppe with his artist son, Robert. The caption reads, “Like Father, Like Son. Robert Gruppe, the 27-year-old son of renowned artist Emile Gruppe, is displaying 20 oil paintings he has done at Dr. Saharuni’s Art Gallery.”
Between 1955 and 1978 Gruppe often donated his paintings to help the Naples Community Hospital and other local charities. When the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to develop 15 acres of wetlands just north of U.S. 41 by the Gordon River Bridge, Gruppe protested in one of his last public statements, (Naples Daily News, September 4, 1977). “Too much land in Florida has already been denuded of the natural vegetation and we should strive to preserve such areas. The land that might be developed is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it is a home for many animals and birds.” Gruppe died in Gloucester on September 28, 1978.
Born: November 23, 1896, Rochester, New York. Died: September 28, 1978, East Gloucester, Mass. Education: The Hague, Netherlands, National Academy of Design, New York City; Art Students League, New York City; In Paris with John Carlson; In Paris with Richard Miller; Charles Chapman; Charles Hawthorne; George Bridgman. Membership: St. Augustine Art Association; Sarasota Art Association; Salmagundi Club, New York City; Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, North Shore Art Association; Gloucester Society of Artists, Rochester Art Association. Exhibits: Miami Beach Art Center, January 1952, a three-man exhibit, including Gruppe’s Early Morning Vermont, Covered Bridge, Fall Birches, Evening in Gloucester; St. Augustine Art Association, March 1952, honorable mention, oil, Shrimp Boats; Ridge Art Gallery, Winter Haven, 1954; Elliott Museum of Art, Fort Pierce, February 1961, the Frances Langford Ralph Evinrude collection of Gruppe paintings; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, March 1963, first one-man exhibit in Pinellas County, recent landscapes, Marines and coastal scenes; Dolphin Gallery, Miami, one-man exhibit, February 1963, including Pompano Fisherman, (pictured Miami Daily News (February 3, 1963); Fort Pierce Art Gallery, March 1963, the Evinrude, Langford Collection; McNichols Art Gallery, 3rd Street South, Naples, February 1970, McNichols Art Gallery presents Emile Albert Gruppe. Represented in the White House; J. P. Morgan Collection; Paint and Clay Permanent Collection, New Haven, Connecticut; Los Angeles Museum.
