Landscape and marine painter Charles
Paul Gruppe was born in Picton, Canada, September 3, 1860. Largely
self-taught, Gruppe did study in Holland and a good portion of
his work consists of Holland inspired scenes. He should not be
confused with his son, artist Emile Gruppe, who painted many well-known
New England scenes.
When Charles was ten, he moved with
his family to Rochester, New York, after the death of his father.
Interested in painting from an early age, he spent much of his
time sketching and creating watercolors and oils. To help support
his mother and sisters, he worked in a sign painting shop, soon
mastering the craft.
Eventually, at age twenty-one, he had
earned enough money to travel steerage to Europe, where traveled
through France, Germany, and Holland, searching for a place to
settle and practice his art. He was taken with Holland, perhaps
attracted to its fishing villages with their picturesque boats
and quaint houses, and decided to stay. He built a home and studio
in the little fishing village of Katwyk Ann Zee and painted much
of his European work in the vicinity of that town.
While in Holland, his skill at subtle
coloration and careful draftsmanship became so identified with
the Dutch School of painting that he was elected to the exclusive
Pulchre Studio in the in the Hague, something highly unique for
an American. Members of the Dutch Royal Family collected his work,
which included portraits of the Dutch people as well as genre,
marine, and countryside scenes. Many of his paintings are of the
Zuider Zee and of Sheveningen, where he had a vacation villa.
Altogether, Gruppe spent over twenty years in Holland, becoming
a celebrity artist and ultimately being patronized by the royalty
of Europe. His work is represented in many museums in America
and Europe.
Gruppe returned to America, becoming
both a painter and dealer/broker in the art of Dutch painters,
and popularizing Dutch art among American collectors and art connoisseurs.
His son, Emile, who was to also become a great painter, was born
at the family residence in Rochester in 1896. Soon thereafter
the Gruppes moved back to Katwyk Ann/Zee, Holland, but in 1909,
the family returned to the United States as the clouds of W.W.I
gathered.
Although their ancestry was originally
the Hamburg area of Germany, they at this time added an accent
to e of the Gruppe name to make it appear less German.
The elder Gruppe found an apartment/studio
at Carnegie Hall in New York City. His son Emile also wanted to
paint, and, in addition to teaching him himself, Charles sent
him to the best teachers, including Bridgeman (figures/drawing),
Carlson ( landscapes / values) and Hawthorne (a colorist). Charles
had been an essentially self-taught artist but his son would have
the best teachers.
In 1925, after seeing an exhibition
in New York that featured the beautiful winter harbor scenes of
Gloucester by Frederick Mulhaupt, the Gruppe father and son team
headed to Cape Ann, to see for themselves. "Mulhaupt got
the smell of Gloucester on canvas", Emile had said. Father
and son were already fond of seacoasts and seaports and both Gruppes
soon fell in love with Cape Ann.
They both continued to paint in the
Cape Ann area for the rest of their lives. The elder Charles P.
Gruppe died in Rockport, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1940
at his studio. He was 80. (a stay of 15 years). During those years
Charles spent his summers in Rockport and the remainder of the
year at his New York studio. The younger Gruppe (Emile) died in
1978 (a stay of 53 years) He was 78. Until 1929, the two Gruppes
shared a studio on Bearskin Neck in Rockport. Then Emile decided
make his own fortune and moved to nearby Gloucester where he purchased
an old school house on Rocky Neck.
Despite his stern look, Charles Gruppe
was said to have a sunny and optimistic disposition. He had little
formal education and no visible advantages in his early youth.
All he did have was a strong love of painting which seemed inborn
to him, as it was to generations of his family. He painted thousands
of paintings in his life that are in the finest collections of
Europe and America.
All four of his children were exposed
to art and artists at tender ages, and eventually all established
themselves in the arts: sculptor, Karl, was a member of the National
Academy; musician, Paulo, is a cellist. Virginia was a watercolorist/art
dealer who painted Rockport and Gloucester scenes and owned a
gallery selling Gruppe and other paintings in Rochester, NY, where
she lived until her death in the 1960s. Charles son, Emile, was
a highly regarded painter. Emile's son, Robert C. Gruppe is also
an artist and operates a studio in Rocky Neck today. A remarkable
family legacy.
Charles Gruppes work, This Painting,
(ca 1903), which depicts a sailboat tied to a quay in icy waters,
is one example of the silver gray tonalist paintings in which
he specialized when he was in Holland.
He was honored with numerous awards
and medals, including gold medals at Paris and Rouen, and two
silver medals (watercolor and oil) at the World's Fair in St.
Louis in 1903. Charles P. Gruppe was also a member of the Salmagundi
Club in New York.
