(Please Scroll Down--Catalogue is Alphabetical by Artist Last Name)
Artist Dates: 1896 - 1978
Painting Title: At the Wharf, Gloucester Painting Date: Undated
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed
Provenance: Private Collection
Condition: Excellent
Size Unframed: 20 x 24
Frame Condition: New Reproduction
Artist Best Price: $59,400
Offered At: $20,000
In 1925, after seeing an exhibition that featured the beautiful winter harbor scenes of Gloucester by Frederick Mulhaupt, the Gruppe father and son team headed to Cape Ann for a look that lasted forever. Until 1929 they shared a studio on Bearskin Neck in Rockport. Then Emile moved to nearby Gloucester, where he purchased an old school house on Rocky Neck, close to his beloved harbor scenes which he painted year after year after year. Nyhan observes: " Emile Gruppe' was very quick and sure of himself. He would complete painting a large 30 by 36 canvas in less than two hours, sometimes one. He would begin by taking a charcoal stick and drawing a rough outline of his subject, sketching in the major elements. Then with swift and confident strokes he would begin to cover the drawing. "Well, lets have a pink sky today" he would say and in would go the Rose Madder. "How about some masts, here" He would load his brush and Zip, Zip, he would drop the tip as quickly as possible, the faster, the straighter the line. And his masts were in." Gruppe is revered as an artist's artist--but his ultimate idea was that we were all artists. That is why his painting remain in endless demand--the small, the large--they are all the joyous expressions of a genius.
Gruppe loved the wharfs and docks of Gloucester, and we think our work is particularly interesting for its sense of connection between the harbor and the open sea of New England that seems to roll in right to the dock. All is in transition as the catch is transferred from the sea to the fishing trawler to the shore. Gruppe has perfectly rendered the harmony of a natural process.
