Richard Gruelle
Richard Buckner Gruelle (February 22, 1851 – November 8, 1914)[1] was an American Impressionist painter, illustrator, and author, who is best known as one of the five Hoosier Group artists.
Gruelle's masterwork is The Canal—Morning Effect (1894), a painting of the Indianapolis, Indiana skyline, but he is also known for his watercolors and marine landscapes of the Gloucester, Massachusetts, area.
Gruelle wanted to be an artist from an early age, a talent that his mother encouraged, but his family could not afford to send him to art school.
In 1884, around the age twelve or thirteen, Gruelle left school and apprenticed himself to a local house and sign painter, where he learned to mix paints.
Gruelle and his wife, Alice, became interested in spiritualism following a trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and, after his return to Indianapolis, the couple held Sunday séances in the parlor of their home.
[2] In 1905, seeking greater opportunities for his family, Gruelle closed his Indianapolis studio, rented out the Tacoma Avenue home, and moved his wife and two youngest children to New York City.
Their daughter, Prudence, continued her vocal training in New York, but Gruelle, his wife, and younger son, Justin, returned to Indianapolis in 1907.
[8][9] The middle Gruelle child, a daughter named Prudence (1884–1966), trained as a vocal musician in New York City at the Grand Conservatory of Music and the Metropolitan Opera School.
[8][10] Gruelle and his wife, Alice, later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he briefly decorated cast-iron safes for a local firm and took art classes at night.
From his home base in Indianapolis, Gruelle often traveled to the East Coast, making extended sketching trips to Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; and Gloucester, Massachusetts.
[2] In December 1894, five Indianapolis-area artists (Gruelle, William Forsyth, Otto Stark, J. Ottis Adams, and T. C. Steele), were included the Five Hoosier Painters exhibition that the Central Art Association sponsored in Chicago, Illinois.
[14] Local art critics praised the exhibition, which was held in sculptor Lorado Taft's Chicago studio, for its "individuality, vitality and fresh approach.
"[15] One art critic noted that Gruelle's paintings in the exhibition, which included Passing Storm, showed his "keen and analytical" perceptions, dominated with "a feeling for symmetrical grouping.
[16][17] In addition to regular trips to the East Coast, Gruelle lived in New York City from 1905 to 1907 with his wife, Alice, and two younger children, but returned to Indianapolis, where he continued to paint until the family relocated to Connecticut in 1910.
[18] In 1892 Gruelle was invited to view the private art collection of Baltimore industrialist William Thompson Walters at his Maryland home.
After reading Gruelle's article, which included vivid descriptions of the artworks, Walters asked him to write a book about the collection.
[9][14] In 1910, at the age of fifty-nine, Gruelle and his wife, Alice, moved to a century-old home on property they purchased in Norwalk, Connecticut, about 43 miles (69 km) from New York City.
Although the Connecticut property was Gruelle's home for the remainder of his life, he frequently returned to Indianapolis to exhibit his work and visit friends and family members.
He exhibited at the Society of Western Artists annual shows and in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at Saint Louis, Missouri.
