Summer Woods
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: Gift of Hugh Ronald, 1986
Richard Gruelle (1851 - 1914)
A self-taught artist, Gruelle was apprenticed to a house painter but studied art books in an effort to become a true artist. His early attempts at portrait painting were not successful and for a while he earned his living at painting landscapes on safes in Cincinnati. Eventually he moved to Indianapolis where he met T.C. Steele and the other members of the Hoosier Group. He became encouraged with his efforts and exhibited his works and traveled east. He met collector William T. Walters (Walters Gallery, Baltimore). Gruelle was commissioned to catalogue the industrialist's extensive collection that became one of the most famous art publications of its day, Notes: Critical & Biographical.
Gruelle exhibited with the Hoosier group in 1894 and established his reputation nationally. Prang, the famous lithographers from Boston, commissioned him to execute a work for them, introducing the artist to the rugged beauty of the New England coast. Eventually Gruelle moved to the Silvermine artist colony in Connecticut but continued to write articles for the Indianapolis Star. His son, John became a noted cartoonist for the New York Herald Tribune.
