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Louis Grell

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Louis Frederick Grell
Self Portrait ca 1916
Born
Ludwig Heinrich Grell, III

(1887-11-30)November 30, 1887
Council Bluffs, Iowa
DiedNovember 21, 1960(1960-11-21)(aged 72)
Chicago, IL
NationalityAmerican
EducationSchool of Applied Arts Hamburg, Royal Akademie of Fine Arts, Munich, University of Munich
Known forcomposition and portrait painter
Notable workmurals inside Chicago Theatre, Netherland Plaza Hotel, Northwestern Military Academy, Notre Dame de Chicago, Union Station St. Louis
SpouseFredricka Seammers
AwardsHarry Frank prize Art Institute of Chicago 1930, Municipal Art League prize AIC 1936
Patron(s)Charles L. Hutchison, Ruth Van Sickle Ford

Louis Frederick Grell(November 30, 1887 – November 21, 1960) was an American figure composition and portrait artist based in theTree Studioresident artist colony inChicago,Illinois.He received his formal training in Europe from 1900 through 1915 and later became art professor at theChicago Academy of Fine Artsfrom 1916 to 1922, and at theArt Institute of Chicagofrom 1922 to 1934. Grell exhibited his works throughout Europe from 1905 to 1915, in San Francisco in 1907, and in Chicago at the Art Institute 25 times from 1917 to 1941.[1]He exhibited in New York in 1915 and 1916 and in Philadelphia and Washington DC. Primarily an allegorical and figurative composition muralist and portrait painter, his creative strokes adorn the ceilings and walls of numerous US National Historic Landmark buildings.

Early life

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He was born inCouncil Bluffs, Iowa,to German emigrant meat market owners, and remained until the age of 12, when in May 1900, his parents decided to send him toHamburg, Germany,to study art. Grell's first two years were spent refining his understanding of the German language. He then began a three-year study of the fundamentals of painting in Altona, Germany. Soon after, he was accepted to the prestigious School of Applied Arts in Hamburg, where young student Grell and Professor Switz earned commissions together to paint murals inside the famous Hamburg Boathouse (the great meeting place for all of Northern Germany), Hamburg Music Hall and elaborate paintings for the home of Germany's wealthiest man, "Budge, the Turpentine King". Grell's work at the Academy would earn him praise in 1906 at the Third German Arts & Crafts Exhibition in Dresden.[2]

Training

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For Grell, earning top student honors of 3,000 students from 1905 to 1907 at the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg meant the Hamburg School would sponsor him at the Royal Academie of Fine Arts in Munich, underFranz von Stuck,Carl von MarrandAngelo Jank,from 1908 through 1912 (1907, June 2.Omaha World Herald). Grell also attended the University of Munich. While in Munich, Grell was a member of the famedAmerican Artists Clubwith fellow membersE. Martin Hennings,Walter Ufer,Emil Frei,Victor Higgins– a total of sixteen members are photographed attending Friday evening meetings at Club Glasl in Munich.[3]Upon completion of his formal studies in Germany, Grell traveled Europe studying at major art centers, painting and exhibiting his works throughout Europe.

Royal Academie of Fine Arts Munich, Germany

In May 1907, after Grell had completed his art training in Hamburg, he returned to America to visit family in Council Bluffs, Iowa. At the age of 19, on a late summer family vacation to Salt Lake City, Utah, Grell took over a failed mural commission depicting the 1847 entry of the Mormons into Emigration Canon. The mural was commissioned for the Manufacturers Hall exhibit in downtown Salt Lake City under preparations for the Utah State Fair of 1907.[4]Grell won top prize at the fair and earned numerous other commissions while in Salt Lake City from August to November. Grell hired two assistants and took three months to finish the paintings. One large work eventually ended up on exhibit in San Francisco in the fall of 1907.[5]

Upon completion of his extended stay in the US, Grell returned to Germany, this time enrolling in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in March 1908 where he remained until 1910. When America's involvement in World War I became certain, Grell was forced to escape Europe in 1914 through Norway and landed his first American artistic position as a stage set designer for large Broadway productions in New York City in 1915. By early fall of 1916, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts offered Grell a position as art instructor. Grell family archives, specifically a postcard sent to family by Grell (personal communication #1, October 28, 1916), show Grell as rooming with fellow Munich artist and friend E. Martin Hennings in studio #14 at theFine Arts Buildingin Chicago. Both artists would eventually relocate to their own studios in the famousTree Studioart colony in Chicago's near north side. Grell would live at Tree Studios in Chicago from 1917 until his death in 1960.

Chicago

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Grell was the main art instructor at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1922 where one of his students was animator and cartoonist,Walt Disney.[6]In 1917, Elias Disney relocated his family back to Chicago where Walt Disney attended McKinley High School during the day and took art classes at night at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts[7]under Grell in 1917 and 1918.[8]

Grell would later recount the Walt Disney days to family members as Walt Disney's fame grew, but never talked about this outside the family. Recent Grell Family archives uncovered aided in proving this claim, but the real help came in the summer of 2012, when Dianne Disney Miller, eldest daughter of Walt Disney, authorized the release of Walt Disney transcripts from theIllinois Board of Higher Educationto the Louis Grell Family in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In 1922, Grell was recruited by Director Charles L. Hutchison of theArt Institute of Chicagoto become art instructor at the famousSchool of the Art Institute of Chicagoand would remain until 1934 when Grell would embark on a solo career as a portrait and mural painter. Grell exhibited 25 times at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1917 until 1941 winning top honors. Grell won the coveted Harry Frank prize for figure composition in 1930 with his large painting titled "Destiny" at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Municipal Art League prize for portraiture in 1936 for "Portrait of the Painter, Moessel" at the Art Institute of Chicago. Grell also exhibited heavily throughout Chicago and in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington DC.[9]

Artist at work

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Grell's regular clientele list included old movie palace giantsBalaban and KatzandRapp and Rapparchitects, the Albert Pick Hotel chain, Daprato Statuary Company, Publix Theaters, Paramount and Universal Studios. Grell was primarily a portrait and mural painter, but the Grell Family collection and other known works include a vast array of mural studies, portraits, landscapes and still life paintings. Murals by Grell can be seen today by visiting theChicago Theatre;the Hilton Netherland Plaza Hotel andCarew Towerin downtown Cincinnati; Assumption Catholic Church in Chicago; Palace Theater in Greensburg, PA; Manufactures Bank & Trust in St. Louis, MO now theLift For Life Academy;Notre Dame de Chicago; the City of DetroitWater Board Building;Springfield, Illinois (Amtrak station);The Town of Persia, NY Town Hall in the oldBank of Gowanda;Citizens National Bank,Springville, New York;Peoples Church of Chicago; Pick-Ohio Hotel now Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority,Youngstown, OHand many others.[10]

Noted large-scale mural commissions earned by Grell include Paramount Pictures Corporate Headquarters Times Square Paramount Theatre New York City, Citizens National Bank New York City, Eldorado Hotel New York City, Toledo Paramount Theatre, Ft. Wayne IN Paramount Theatre, Denver Paramount Theatre, Gateway Theatre Chicago IL, Congress Plaza Hotel Chicago IL three separate series of commissions in 1940 1952 & 1955, Hotel Lafontaine Huntington IN eight panels, Bank of Detroit History of Banking panels, Bank of New York lobby murals, Sacred Heart Chicago, Rotary Club (#1) of Chicago Board room wall panel, St. Mary's Academy Chicago IL, Aragon Ballroom Grand stairway Spanish dance mural Chicago IL, Mark Twain, Fountain Square and Jefferson Hotel's in St. Louis Mo and Union Station WW II ticket counter mural St. Louis MO.

Tree Studios artist colony

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Tree Studio art colony former building

Close friends included Tarzan illustratorJ. Allen St. John;Taos Society of Artistsearly membersE. Martin Hennings(Best man in Grell's April 1, 1922 wedding at Tree Studios),Walter Uferand Victor Higgins; sculptorsJohn StorrsandAlbin Polasek;paintersCarl Hoeckner,John and Anna Stacey, Julius Moessel,Macena Barton,impressionist Pauline Palmer,Diana Barrymoreand husband, Olympian and Tarzan actorJohnny Weissmuller;vaudevilleactors Jean and Inez Bregant of Council Bluffs, Iowa and many others.

Grell and other resident artists frequently entertained Hollywood and New York celebrities and aspiring young artists such asEmerson Woelfferin their art studios in North Chicago.

In 1960, at the age of 72 and ailing from heart disease, Grell and fellow Tree Studio artist and resident Donald J. Anderson chained themselves to a "tree" to help prevent bulldozers from tearing down the historicTree Studios building and annexes,now aNational Historic LandmarkandChicago City Landmarkbuilt in 1894 – the oldest resident artist colony in America.[11]

Death

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Grell died of a heart ailment while working on numerous mural projects and easel paintings at Tree Studios in Chicago on November 21, 1960.

Selected works

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Grell's large mural titledDestinywon the 1930 Harry A. Frank Prize at the Art Institute of Chicago[12]and hisPortrait of the Painter, Moesselwon the Municipal Art League prize at the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1936.[13]Grell's more significant works include; four large portraits of the first four US Presidents commissioned by theMayflower Hotelin Washington DC in the 1920s, the Times Square Paramount Theatre,Gateway TheaterChicago, Toledo Paramount Theatre, 14 large French Fairytale murals painted in 1920 for the new Balaban & Katz Theater giant to adorn the proscenium arch inside the Chicago Theater[14]and again 14 large Greek and Roman themed murals painted in 1932 for the "Century of Progress" renovation inside the Chicago Theater, 18 large murals throughout the Netherland Plaza Hotel (now a Hilton), Cincinnati, OH in 1930 (Who's Who in America artists file),Carnival Evening1917 (Art Institute of Chicago Instructor's Resume of 1918) andThe Midnight Carol1924 oil on canvas works exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago,Lady, with Dog1935 oil on canvas exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago & Chicago Galleries Association (compared to Thomas Gainsborough),Orpheus,Evening on the Lake,andBacchusfrom 1905 exhibited in Dresden, Germany in 1906 and won honors.

Images

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  • Neptune on Horses, 1956, oil
    Neptune on Horses,1956, oil
  • Cabin on Meadow, 1952, oil
    Cabin on Meadow,1952, oil
  • Apollo on Chariot, mural study, ca. 1930, watercolor
    Apollo on Chariot,mural study, ca. 1930, watercolor
  • Century of Progress, 1932, sketch
    Century of Progress,1932, sketch
  • Ballerina, 1917, oil
    Ballerina,1917, oil

Notes

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  1. ^Louis Grell Foundation Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago.
  2. ^"Council Bluffs Boy Heads The Long List of 3,000 Students For Three Years In Germany".Omaha World Herald.June 2, 1907. p. 33 M-5.
  3. ^Carl Bohnen papers, 1888-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution and Grell Family archive photo of club signed by seven members
  4. ^"Painting Panorama In Zion".Omaha World Herald:p. 3. September 14, 1907.
  5. ^"Artist Returns From Salt Lake".Omaha World Herald:p. 3. November 14, 1907.
  6. ^L. Grell personal communication #1, (1916). Chicago.American Art News,vol 15, no 9, page 4, Walt Disney Family Museum, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA[clarification needed]
  7. ^"About Walt Disney".D23.
  8. ^Illinois Board of Higher Education. (2012). Chicago Academy of Fine Arts Student Record Archives. State of Illinois. Springfield, IL: Berman, Harry J. letter dated November 12, 2012.
  9. ^Ryerson and Burnham Library, Art Institute of Chicago, Louis Grell collection 1918-1957
  10. ^Lister, Alwood. (1948, April). And now we want you to meet Mr. Louis Grell.Picks Topicks,p. 6-7.
  11. ^Mason, M. (May 26, 1991). "Painting the Town Jim Romano lives amidst Chicago artists of another age".Chicago Tribune.pp. Tempo 3, Zone C.
  12. ^(1930). 34th Annual EXHIBITION BY ARTISTS OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY. The Art Institute of Chicago #78, reproduced.
  13. ^(1936). 40th Annual EXHIBITION BY ARTISTS OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY. The Art Institute of Chicago #73.
  14. ^"American Show Limited in Scope: Notes of Art and Artists".Chicago Daily Tribune.November 24, 1929. p. H5.

References

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  • List of Chicago Artists(1973); edited by H. Black
  • Illinois–Cook County. National Register of Historic Places.
  • American Art News, December 8, 1917 vol 16 no. 9 p. 7 "Chicago" exhibits with Ufer, Hennings and others
  • Chicago Tribune, November 2, 1919 p. 5, November 24, 1929 p. H5, July 19, 1931 p. C8, April 29, 1934 p. D5,
  • Oak Park Oakleaves, December 8, 1917 p. 14,
  • Omaha World Herald, June 2, 1907 p. 33 M-5, July 16, 1907 p. 3, September 14, 1907 p. 3, November 14, 1907 p. 3
  • Council Bluffs, IowaThe Daily Nonpareil, April 2, 1935 p. 7, April 29, 1941 p. 14, November 9, 1949
  • Ryerson and Burnham Library, Art Institute of Chicago, Louis Grell collection 1918 - 1957
  • Walt Disney Family Museum, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA
  • Who's Who in American Art 2011 - Publications,Marquis Who's Who,March 2011, webpage: MWW-AmArt-2011
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