Emile Gruppe  (1896-1978)

Emile Gruppe was born in Rochester, New York, but he spent the first decade of his life in Katwykan Zee, Holland where his father had acquired a villa throught the bartering of his own paintings.  Growing up Emile Gruppe was surrounded by the art and creativity of his father.

Gruppe's formal art training began at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1914 when his family returned to the United States.  He also traveled to Europe to study art with the Students League in Paris at LaGrande Chaumiere.  His teachers included George Bridgman, Charles Hawthorne and Richard Miller, but the outstanding influence on his art was John F. Carlson.

Gruppe found Gloucester and Cape Ann on the Massachusetts coast to be ideal for his outdoor paintings.  The harbors, sailboats, fishing craft, and quaint village streets provided him with subject matter for his own canvases and for those of his many students.  Gruppe opened his own art school in Gloucester in 1929 and continued to teach there until 1970.  Gruppe was very disciplined. He painted everyday outdoors, and during inclimate weather worked on older paintings in his studio.  Both his son and grandson are artists as well, and continue to paint in his studio in Gloucester.

Emile Gruppe's work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions at the National Academy of Design.  He is also respresented in public and provide collections around the country and was the author of three books on painting.