Oliver Dennett Grover[1]

BORN: January 29, 1860[2] Earlville, LaSalle Co., IL

DIED:  February 14, 1927 Chicago[3]

MARRIED:  February 8, 1887 Marie Louise Rolshoven [deceased 1957] of Detroit, sister of artist Julius Rolshoven[4]

TRAINING

1871 Privately in Earlville, Alden Finney Brooks[5]

1876-1882 University of Chicago[6]

1876-1878 Chicago Academy of Design, Saturday classes, Henry Fenton Spread[7]

1878-1880 Munich Royal Academy with Gyula-Julius-de-Benczuer[8]

1880-1881 Florence with Frank Duveneck[9]

1883 Florence[10]

1883-1884[11] Académie Julian with Gustave Boulanger

ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT

1878-1882[12] Cyclorama painting, Jerusalem on the last day of the Crucifixion[13]

c.1884 Sign painted for Libby’s patent protectiong congress gaiter, Chicago[14]

1886 Cyclorama painting, Reed and Gross, Chicago[15]

1887 Assistant to Paul Phillippoteaux, Cyclorama painting, Battle of Gettysburg[16]

1889-1890 Assistant painting proscenium arch, Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building[17]

1891 Reed and Gross, Chicago, cyclorama painting, The Chicago Fire[18]

1891-c.1895 Albert (Ernest), Grover & Burridge (Walter), scenic and decorative painters, Chicago[19]

1893 Chairman, congress of painters, Congresses of Artists, Columbian Exposition[20]

1893 Panels (8) depicting history of human dress, Merchant Tailors’ Building, World’s Columbian Exposition[21]

1894 Steele MacKaye’s Scenatorium[22]

1894 Art Lectures[23]

1895 Murals (8) Evolution of the Book, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, Connecticut[24]

1897 Mural (since destroyed), Holy Angels Cathedral, Oakwood Blvd., Chicago[25]

1897 Portrait commission, Miss Morgan, Oak Park, IL[26]

1897 Portrait commission, Mrs. W. S. Russell[27]

1898 Proscenium arch murals, Fine Arts Building, Studebaker concert hall, Chicago[28]

1899 Lecture “American Art in Comparison with French Art,” quarterly meeting of the Chicago Art Association[29]

1900 Portrait commission, Miss Lillian Bell[30]

1900 Portrait commission, Mrs. LaVerne W. Noyes[31]

1900 Portrait commission, Miss Eva Barr[32]

1901-1906 Mural “Scherzo”, Fine Arts Building, 10th Floor[33]

1901 Decorations, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo[34]

1901 Portrait commission, Julia Cooley[35]

1901 Art Lecture, “Venetian recollections,” The Arché Club of Chicago[36]

1902 Portrait commission, Margaret Becker[37]

1903 Murals Art; Science; Literature; Labor, Timothy B. Blackstone Memorial Library, Chicago[38]

1904 Municipal Art League lecture on Techniques of Painting[39]

1905 Circular ceiling paintings The Use of Money and The Misuse of Money and mural decorations: Art; Science; Labor; Commerce, First National Bank of Chicago[40]

1906 Painting commission, Chicago Tribune[41]

1915 Mural Virgin Surrounded by Angels, Church of Holy Angel, Chicago

1917-1918 Supervised Midwest section, United States Committee on Public Information, Bureau of Pictorial Publicity, patriotic posters during World War I[42]

1922 Lectured, South Bend, IN Art Festival[43]

1923 Lectured, Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Terre Haute Art Association[44]

1925 Organized exhibition of Chicago Artists, Rockford Art Association[45]

1926 Lecture to the WHT Radio Art Club, Chicago[46]

TEACHING

1881-1883 Mugnone School of Painting, Florence[47]

1882-1883 Duveneck school, Florence, with Julius Rolshoven[48]

1885[49]-1892 Art Institute of Chicago: 1885; 1891-1892[50] Life, evenings; 1886-1892 Drawing & painting/life, antique & still[51]

1888 Adirondack Mountains summer tour with the Art Institute of Chicago [see Travel section]

1894-1895 London[52]

1897-1898 London[53]

1902-1903 Chicago Academy of Fine Arts[54]

1905-1907 Grover school, Florence[55]

1908-1909; 1912 Art Institute of Chicago[56]

1913 Cincinnati Academy of Art[57]

RESIDENCES

1861-1876 Earlville, LaSalle Co., IL[58]

1876-1927 Chicago[59]

1886 Detroit[60]

TRAVEL

1880-1882 Italy[61]

1882 Munich[62]

1882 Earlville, IL[63]

1883 Florence[64]

1884-1885 Paris

1885 Venice, Florence[65]

1885 Detroit

1886 Boston[66]

1886-1887 Italy[67]

1886-1887 Detroit

1888 Adirondack Mountains (summer)[68]

c.1890 Florence and Sienna

1892 Europe[69]

c.1894-1914 Florence and Northern Italy[70]

1896 Bass Lake, Indiana (summer)[71]

1897-1898 London; Paris[72]

1898-on Eagle’s Nest Art Colony, Oregon, IL[73]

1901 Buffalo, New York[74]

1902 Boston, Washington, DC, New York City[75]

1902 St. Louis[76]

1903 Europe,[77] Venice,[78] Florence[79]

1904 Venice[80]

1905 Detroit[81]

1906 Southern U. S.[82]

1906-1910[83] Florence

1908 Florida[84]

1909 Venice[85]

1911 Portofino, Italy[86]

1912 Western U. S.[87] and Canada[88]

1912 Florence; Venice[89]

1913 Venice[90]

1914 Italy[91]

1914-1915 Canaan, NY; Berkshire Mountains[92]

1916 Santa Barbara, CA[93]

1916 Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Canada[94]

1917 Emerald Lake, Canadian Rocky Mountains (summer)[95]

1919 Gaspe Basin, Quebec[96]

1920s Western U. S.;[97] Banff, Canada

1921 New York City[98]

1923 Florence and Venice[99]

1924 Atlanta, Georgia[100]

1924 Glacier National Park[101]

1926 Italy[102]

Nova Scotia[103]

MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES

Allied Artists of America

American Arts and Industries Society (director)

Appui aux Artistes, Chicago branch

Art Association of Chicago (board 1900-1901[104])

Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association (president 1917-1919,[105] honorary president 1922-1923)

Art Service League and Artists’ Aid to the Red Cross[106] (first president 1919)[107]

Art Students League of Chicago (president 1890)[108]

Artists’ Guild of Chicago

Arts Club of Chicago

Association of Arts and Industries (vice president, director)[109]

Association of Chicago Painters & Sculptors (club’s first president 1923[110]-1927)

Attic (The) Club 1895[111]

Central Relief Association, Art and Artists Subcommittee[112]

Chicago Art League

Chicago Galleries Association

Chicago Society of Artists (founder, treasurer 1888-1890, secretary 1891-1894, president 1889-1890,[113] 1902[114]-1904, board 1922-1923[115])

Cliff Dwellers Club (charter member 1907[116])

Davenport Art Society, Inter-State Art Exhibit 1892

Eagle’s Nest (founder)[117]

Grand Central Art Galleries

Little Room, Chicago[118]

Municipal Art League of Chicago (director 1901-1907)[119]

National Association of Portrait Painters[120]

National Society of Mural Painters

Ohio Watercolor Club

Psi Upsilon[121]

Salmagundi Club

Society of Western Artists (vice president 1903-1904;[122] president 1905-1906[123])

U. S. Government, Department of Pictorial Publicity 1918[124]

Western Art Association, Chicago (founder, president 1885-1886)

HONORS

1892 First Charles T. Yerkes Prize, Chicago Society of Artists annual[125]

1893 General Committee, World Congress of Artists, World’s Columbian Exposition[126]        

1899 Chicago Woman’s Aid Purchase Prize, Art Institute, Chicago Annual[127]

1904 Silver Medal Mural Painting, and Bronze Medal Easel Painting, Universal Exposition, St. Louis[128]

1906/1907 Fine Arts Building Prize, Society of Western Artists annual[129]

1910 Young Fortnightly Club Prize, Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity [130]

1910 Municipal Art League Purchase Prize, Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity[131]

1913 Martin B. Cahn Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual[132]

1913 Associate, National Academy of Design

1914 Fine Arts Building Prize, Society of Western Artists annual[133]

1915 Silver Medal, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco

1918 William R. French Memorial Gold Medal, Art Institute of Chicago, Alumni Retrospective[134]

1918 War Department Committee, Section of Artists for War Duty[135]

1926 (Nov.) Fourth Purchase Prize, Chicago Galleries Association

SELECTED JURIES SERVED

Art Institute of Chicago, James W. Ellsworth and Art Institute Prize committee 1890[136]

Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual 1899, 1905, 1915, 1922

Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity[137] 1897, 1902[138]-1904, 1913, 1917, 1922

Art Institute of Chicago, American Watercolors 1901, 1915

Art Students’ League 1917

Artists’ Guild of Chicago annual 1915

Central Art Association, Christmas sale 1898

Chicago Architectural Club annual 1894, 1895[139]

Chicago Association of Commerce cover design competition[140]

Chicago Society of Amateur Photographers held at Art Institute of Chicago 1902

Chicago Society of Artists annual 1893[141]

Chicago Society of Etchers annual 1915

Greater America Exposition, Omaha, Chicago jury 1899[142]

Hoosier Salon 1926[143]

Milwaukee Art Institute, Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors 1918

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915[144]

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual 1913, 1917, 1926

Poster Advertising Association of Chicago, church poster competition 1925

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Prizes, 1887

Society of American Artists, Chicago Exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago[145]

Society of Western Artists annual 1905[146]-1907

Society of Western Artists, Fine Arts Building Prize 1913

Swedish American Artists annual, Chicago 1912[147]

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

A Century of Progress, Illinois Host Building 1933

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, American Annual 1910, 1916

All-Illinois Society of Fine Arts annual 1927[148]

Anderson’s Art Gallery, Chicago 1928[149]

Arché Club, Salon Day 1895, 1896

Art Institute of Chicago,    Friends of our Native Landscape     1919

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress 1933

Art Institute of Chicago, Alumni Association 1918

Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual 1888, 1890[150], 1894, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1904, 1910, 1911, 1913[151]-1915, 1917, 1918, 1920-1922, 1924,[152] 1926,[153] 1939

Art Institute of Chicago, Benefit for French Artists: Appui aux Artistes 1916

Art Institute of Chicago, Collection of Paintings from Various Sources 1890

Art Institute of Chicago, Continuous Exhibit of Chicago Art 1910

Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of American Art: Loan Exhibition of American Paintings 1914[154]

Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Collection of Watercolors 1888

Art Institute of Chicago, National Association of Portrait Painters 1916

Art Institute of Chicago, Nine Chicago Artists 1915[155]

Art Institute of Chicago, Portraits for the Benefit of the Passavant Memorial Hospital 1910

Art Institute of Chicago, Portraits Loaned to the Antiquarians 1895[156]

Art Institute of Chicago, Portraits Of Men And Women Who Helped To Make Chicago Great 1891-1941, 1941

Art Institute of Chicago, Red Cross Posters By Chicago Artists 1917[157]

Art Institute of Chicago, Wild Flowers Preservation Society     1921

Art Institute of Chicago, Young Fortnightly Competition 1896, 1897

Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity 1897, 1899-1901[158], 1903[159]-1907, 1909[160]-1915, 1917, 1918,[161] 1921, 1922, 1925

Artists’ Guild of Chicago annual 1913, 1915

Arts Club of Chicago inaugural show 1916

Arts Club of Chicago Members Show             1917,[162] 1920, 1924

Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors annual 1925, 1927

Atlanta Exposition 1924

Aurora Art League, Prominent American Artists 1926

Better Community Conference, University of Illinois, Art Extension Committee Rotary Exhibit 1921

Carnegie Institute annual 1913, 1920

Carson Pirie Scott & Co. Gallery, Exhibition by Chicago Portrait Painters 1918[163]

Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery, Twelve Chicago Painters    1920

Central Art Association traveling loan 1895

Central States Exhibition, Aurora 1923

Charles E. Cobb Gallery, Boston 1905[164]

Chicago Architectural Club annual at Art Institute of Chicago 1895,[165] 1902[166]

Chicago Art League annual 1883, 1884

Chicago Galleries Association semi-annual 1926 (1st, 2nd)

Chicago Society of Artists annual 1889,[167] 1890[168]-1892, 1894, 1895

Chicago Society of Artists annual sale 1890

Chicago Society of Artists, Black & White Annual 1892

Chicago Society of Artists, Holiday Exhibition 1889, 1893, 1894

Chicago Society of Artists, Holiday Sketch 1892

Chicago Woman’s Club reception in honor of Chicago painters 1895[169]

Chicago Woman’s Club, Chicago Artists 1925

Circolo Artistico, Florence c.1890

Corcoran Gallery of Art 1914, 1916,1926

Des Plaines, IL Women’s Club 1917

Elgin, IL Art Association 1917

Esposizione Internazionale, Rome 1911[170]

Garfield Park Gallery, Municipal Art League Collection 1936

General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Traveling Gallery 1906[171]

Hamilton Club, Chicago    Painters of the Forest Preserve of Cook County           1920[172]

Hyde Park Art Center, Hyde Park Centennial 1962

Illinois Products Exposition 1924

Illinois State Fair, Loan from the Art Institute 1917

Increase Robinson Studio Gallery, Chicago, Art Institute Alumni Association 1931

Inter-State Industrial Exposition 1882, 1884, 1885, 1887[173]

J. W. Young, Galleries, Chicago     Exhibition and Auction      1919

J. W. Young, Galleries, Chicago, Chicago Artists 1905

J. W. Young, Galleries, Chicago, High-Class Pictures, Tapestry and Bas Relief by Prominent American And European Artists 1902

Jacksonville, IL Art Association 1888[174]

Joliet Woman’s Club 1927

Kansas City Art Institute 1921

Knoedler’s Gallery, NY Fifteenth Annual Summer Exhibition 1922[175]

London Royal Academy 1883, 1898[176]

Luxembourg Museum, Paris 1919

Marquette Club of Chicago, Loan Exhibition 1895

Marshall Field & Co. Gallery, Collection of Martin Roche 1928[177]

Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, annual 1900

Munich International Exhibition 1880[178], 1882

National Academy of Design annual 1886, 1905, 1910-1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1921, 1924, 1927

National Academy of Design, Commemorative Exhibition 1825-1925

National Arts Club, Loan Exhibition of Eleven Midwestern Painters 1914

National Arts Club, A Group of Western Painters 1914

National Portrait Gallery, Portraits From The Americans: The Democratic Experience, 11/14/1975 – 9/6/1976[179]

Nebraska Art Association annual 1900, 1914, 1920

New Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Chicago, Chicago Artists 1906, 1907

Nike Club, Chicago Artists 1901 (4/15)

O’Brien Art Galleries, Chicago, Summer Exhibit of Chicago Artists 1897

Salon Société des Artistes Français 1884[180]

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual 1898, 1913, 1915, 1926

Pittsburgh

Reinhardt Galleries, Chicago, nine Chicago artists, 1900[181]

Rockford Art Club, American Painters 1921

Roy H. Conklin Galleries, Aurora, Midwinter Show 1924

Sioux City Woman’s Club, Chicago Artists 1913

Society of American Artists[182]

Society of Western Artists annual 1896, 1899, 1902, 1903,[183] 1905[184], 1906, 1910-1912, 1914

Spencer Museum of Art, American Etchers Abroad 2004

St. Louis Art Museum, American Annual 1890, 1910, 1913, 1919, 1920

Terra Museum of American Art       Chicago Modern 1893-1945, 2004

Tennessee Centennial & International, Nashville 1897[185]

Thurber Art Galleries, Chicago 1908

Thurber Art Galleries, Chicago, Portrait of Miss Lillian Bell 1900

Toledo Art Association, Loan collection of the Vincennes Art Gallery, Chicago 1885 (6/20)

Union League Club of Chicago,       Chicago Artists    1922

Venice

Western Art Association annual 1885[186]

Woman’s Club of Evanston, Loan Exhibit 1914

World’s Columbian Exposition 1893[187]

ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS

1904 Art Institute of Chicago[188]; Detroit Institute of Art, Paintings of Venice

1905 (2/19) Claussen’s Gallery, New York City, impressions of Venice[189]

1909,[190] 1910,[191] 1911[192] Henry Reinhardt Galleries, Chicago

1911-1912 Indianapolis Museum of Art (12/9/1911); Cincinnati Art Museum (1/4/1912); Detroit Institute of Arts (2/6/1912); Art Institute of Chicago (12/12/1912)[193]

1914 Henry Reinhardt Galleries, Chicago[194]

1916 Artists’ Guild of Chicago[195]

1917 Thurber Building, with Julius Rolshoven[196]

1919 Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery[197]

1919 Art Institute of Chicago[198]

1921 Newcomb, Macklin & Co., Chicago[199]

1921 Ralston Galleries, New York[200]

1922 Rockford Art Association

1923 Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery

1923-1924 Art Institute of Chicago

1924 Ackermann Galleries, Chicago, Paintings of Venice and Glacier National Park[201]

1924 Rockford Art Association, Belle Keith Gallery[202]

1924 Thomas Whipple Dunbar Galleries, Chicago[203]

1927 Art Institute of Chicago[204]

1929 Knoedler & Co., Chicago[205]

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Commission For Encouragement of Local Art;[206] Roosevelt University, The Lake (Venetian Scene), 1898[207]

INTERESTING NOTES

In 1890 he left his studio in the Art Institute to set one up at his home.[208]

Grover was part of Harriet Monroe’s Little Room which included several noted literary persons and artists, later he moved to the 57th street art community from the Fine Arts Building with the writer Floyd Dell. Dell lived in Chicago from 1908 to 1913 when he moved to New York. He was literary critic for The Friday Literary Review, a supplement of the Chicago Evening Post. Dell was highly unconventional and believed strongly in self-expression. Later he maintained a residence in Tree studio in Chicago during the warmer months.[209] When he died the teacher George Oberteuffer moved into his unit.

Already quite prosperous by 1894, he had his studio especially built for him on Chicago’s South side.[210] In 1900 he painted a portrait of Laverne W. Noyes.

There is a stunning similarity to Duveneck’s Florentine Flower Girl of 1887, plate 69, on page 95 [Robert Neuhaus, Unsuspected Genius: The Art and Life of Frank Duveneck, (San Francisco: Bedford Press, 1987).] to painting by Grover in Venice of 1885 called The Flower Girl of 1885, Venice. Both models hold a fan, both models sit on the corner of a table, both models hold a basket of flowers, both models have their left hand extended towards the viewer, both models wear the same vertically striped dress and same print top, both wear a shawl, both leaning against a wall up off the floor on the table, both have dangling earrings. Question the attribution of the Duveneck painting to 1887, since Grover’s is dated 1885, Venice, and Duveneck’s is not.

In 1895, Duveneck began doing sculpture, a medium he continued to explore and expand for about ten years. Grover did the sculpture head for the Blackstone library. The Blackstone commission was begun in 1895 and completed in 1896, the two dates are rather curious. Grover was so very close to Lorado Taft, did Grover and Taft influence Duveneck to his sculpture work? In 1900 it was noted Grover was at the clay again having temporarily forsaken his brushes.[211] He sculpted a head of Timothy Blackstone.[212]

Norbert Heermann, Frank Duveneck, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918). Preface: “Since it was not a very easy matter to get the chronology of the works and most interesting facts in connection with them correctly, I am especially indebted to those who have aided me in the preparation of this little work, to Mrs. William B. Pratt, Mr. Clement Barnhorn, and Mr. Oliver Dennett Grover.”

Known to be conservative in taste he reportedly refused one year to send any works to the Arts Club of Chicago for their annual exhibit of artist members because the facility had been “desecrated” by a sculpture by Brancusi.[213]

42: “In the year 1878 Duveneck started a school in Munich, which became so very popular that soon two classes had to be formed of about thirty each, one of Americans and English, the other of different nationalities; and when the desire to again see Italy took him back to Florence at the end of the following year (1879) fully half of his students went with him. Thus his school was transplanted to the banks of the Arno, and the members soon established themselves in the social as well as artistic circles of Florence as the ‘Duveneck Boys’.”

45-46: The ‘Duveneck Boys’ stayed together for about two years working in Florence in the winter and in Venice in the summer. Among them were … Julius Rolshoven, Oliver Dennett Grover… Charles Abel Corwin.

46, 49-50: “Oliver Dennett Grover, the youngest of the group, in speaking about his colleagues said that the advice of John Twachtman, of the Cincinnati contingent, one of the older ones, whose knowledge was wider, was appreciated next to that of the ‘Old Man,’ as they lovingly denominated Duveneck. Then he continued: ‘Joseph DeCamp was just plain ‘Joe’ in those days, the breeziest, cheekiest, most warm-hearted Bohemian in Venice. Full of life, energy, and ambition, he worked unceasingly and gave and took many a hard knock. Rolshoven too was endowed by nature with the artistic temperament, making it especially difficult for him to adapt himself to routine work. Alexander, of course, was the born favorite and leader which he continued to be throughout his life. We always thought, had Alexander not chosen art as his vocation, he might have become a great diplomat. I remember him at the last annual meeting of the National Academy of Design at which he presided, and during the little while I could converse with him he took occasion to speak of students days, and to voice feelingly his sense of the obligation he and all of us were under to Duveneck; incidentally, also, recalling Sargent’s beautiful estimate of him. The student days in Italy were all too short, but while they lasted they were more significant, probably, than a similar period in the lives of most students, because more intensified, more concentrated. The usual student experiences of work and play, elation and dejection, feast and famine, were ours, of course, but in addition to that, and owing to peculiar circumstances and conditions, the advantage of the intimate association and constant companionship we enjoyed not only with our leader but also with his acquaintances and fellow artists, men and women from many lands, was unique and perhaps quite as valuable as any actual school work. We lived in adjoining rooms, dined in the same restaurant, frequented the same cafés, worked and played together with an intimacy only possible to that age and such a community of interests.”

P. 50-51: “Mr. Grover told me once at the time of his Duveneck lecture in Chicago: ‘His clearness of vision and surety of hand were simply masterly. At that time the rarity of his skill was not realized, by me at least. In my innocence I imagined a few years of study and training would give one a similar certainty and skill. During the years since that time I have watched the work of many painters, some of them great men, but for the quality of pure painter ability I have never known his equal.’”

From: “Art in Aurora, Story of Oliver Bennett Grover,” Aurora Beacon, 11/13/1922 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol.44, p.73.: Oliver Bennett [sic] Grover was born and lived in Earlville, 32 miles southwest of Aurora, until his fourteenth year. His father was a lawyer and in lieu of payment of debt, a client left on his hands, a country newspaper in the printing of which, young Grover served as printer’s “devil” and all around emergency man. When he was fifteen years old Oliver’s parents moved to Chicago, but during he process of removal, he was placed in the Sugar Grove county school which had for its principal, the late Prof. Frank J. Hall well known educator in this vicinity, who was also Grover’s uncle. Many in Aurora recall “Denny” Grover during his year’s attendance there. His new home being closely situated to the University of Chicago and with the aid of a scholarship his father had obtained, Grover was able to put himself through school, with comparatively little expenses. What he did incur were defrayed by his painting, a hobby he had developed when living in Earlville. His early artistic history is interesting. A painter had come to the village to paint portraits of his father and other prominent citizens and while watching him young Grover picked up a good bit of knowledge which he put into practical use, painting everything and everybody in town. Following his university course, he was fortunate in receiving a small bequest from an aunt, which enabled him to go abroad and study. He went first to Munich where he was a pupil of Frank Duvenac (sic), whom he terms one of the greatest painters, America has ever produced. When Duvenac (sic) moved his school of some thirty pupils to Italy, Grover was one of them. During these years, Mr. Grover mad the acquaintance of many men of note and formed friendship’s with artists whose names are famous. It was at Duvenac’s (sic) school that Grover learned to know Whistler, who was at that time engaged in doing his collection of Venetian series. His reminiscences of art student life are not the roistering, drunken care-free life pictured so often in novels, but rather of serious work, albeit, much good fun. It was during these days that Mr. Grover formed an association with Julius Rolshoven, who became a famous artist, and more to the point, his brother in law, the charming Mrs. Oliver Dennett Grover, being his sister whom Grover met at the Rolshoven home in Detroit, while performing an errand for his friend who remained in Europe. An art class for young ladies was started in Florence and was kept up by either one or the other for more than thirty years. When they decided to go to London to study, the class was transferred there, and during an interval when Mr. Grover was in this country, John Sargeant (sic) conducted it for Rolshoven during the months of grief following his wife’s death. An interesting fact was that as the years past the children of the members of their original school made up their London classes in later years. Grover spent the large share of his early life abroad with occasional trips home, until 1914 when he came home to stay. Since then he has toured his own country, painting the beauty spots of the western coast, the Canadian Rockies, the middle west, Mexico and everywhere that the artist call beckoned. During the war, Mr. Grover served as director for the Western Division of Pictorial Publicity, an association of artists, formed to supply the various departments of War with pictorial propaganda, including posters for the Navy, the Red Cross, etc., many of which are still vivid in our minds. Mr. Grover’s early life shows no resemblance to the popular figure of fiction and the movies, where the artist so often is pictured as nobly starving to death in a garret. To be sure, he.

From J. Frederick Lowes,“Oliver Dennett Grover: An Interview.” All-Arts Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 4, April 1926, pg. 7-13, 43.

“When asked the whereabouts of the original painting of the interesting self-portrait of Mr. Grover shown on the opposite page, Mr. Grover said: “You will laugh when I show it to you,” and to my surprise he brought out a picture about as big as a minute in size, from which was made the photograph I have selected for reproduction. I was certainly astonished for it was so finely painted and so broad in treatment that one would naturally imagine the original to be a very large size canvas and not one as big as one’s hand, and kept in the pigeon hole of the artist’s desk.

You will readily see from the incident that Mr. Grover has a keen sense of humor, and even though he holds a high position in the world as an international painter, he too, reacts to experiences in everyday life even as you and I. You can see in the reproduction of this unique self-portrait the sincere kindliness and keen understanding you will find in the man—Oliver Dennett Grover.

To me it was a most wonderful experience to have had the opportunity to interview Mr. Grover and see his big spacious, home-like studio. While I was there, I was thinking of the readers of All-Arts, wishing they could have been there too. Mr. Grover is just as interesting as his studio, for he speaks authoritatively on so many branches of art and his bearing of natural culture makes one aspire to the greater things in life.

His studio tells the story of his many travels and experiences, for as you look around you are fascinated with the many charming sketches of foreign countries and America. It is no wonder that Mr. Grover’s studio gatherings have been so popular to the people of Chicago for so many years. Of course, we must not forget that Mrs. Grover’s well-recognized talent as a pianist helped to make Mr. Grover’s studio an ideal center of art.

“I was born and raised in Earlville, Illinois, a small, thriving town of about 4,000 inhabitants, seventy-five miles west of Chicago, Illinois. The town itself has grown, for it now has probably 4,005 as its population. My father was a lawyer and had a rather extensive practice. He, however, was not interested in art. I became interested in art in much the usual way that most boys do. I had some crayons and with them I used to copy Frank Leslie’s illustrations in current magazines while going to school. When I was about ten years old a very important event took place in my experience when my father had one of his friends, Mr. A.F. Brooks, the portrait painter, come to our home to paint portraits of my father, mother, my older brother and myself. This was the first art production I had ever been brought in contact with and it appealed to me very much. My mother was always interested in art, for she used large lumps and chalk and carved or modeled portraits in them. When I was about sixteen years of age,” says Mr. Grover, “I came to Chicago to study at the University of Chicago. All during the time I was there I spent my spare time, evenings and Saturday afternoon, studying at the Art Academy. At that time there wasn’t any Art Institute of Chicago. There were several good instructors there, many are now prominent painters of today. Leonard Volk, the father of the noted painter, Douglas Volk, was one of the instructors at that time. When I was eighteen years of age, I fell heir to a small legacy. I used this money to go over to Munich, where I studied for two years under Benczuer. I then went to Italy and became a student of Frank Duveneck. I was the youngest of that famous group of artists: John H. Twachtman, Julius Rolshoven, Joseph de Camp and John W. Alexander. About this time, I served for three years as director of an art school at Florence. I then went to Paris and studied for about a year under Boulanger, after which I returned to this country and started my practice. This was in the year 1884 and Chicago at the time had about 300,000 inhabitants,” said Mr. Grover.

I then asked Mr. Grover how Chicago accepted art in its earlier days, and I was certainly surprised when he said, “the people were more enthusiastic than they are today.”

He said, “At the time of the Chicago fire they had the old Academy of Design, which was organized by a group of painters—Eric Root, A.F. Brooks, J. Roy Robertson, A.F. Bigelow, and a few others. The Academy of Design held annual exhibitions at the Crosby Opera House. Their exhibitions were more successful than those of today. They sold more pictures way long in the time of the Crosby Opera House than we have sold in any exhibit since with one or two exceptions. The Academy of Design was then wiped out by fire. They tried to reorganize—they put a number of laymen on the board and failed. Ultimately they had to be taken over by the present Art Institute of Chicago. From that time on the exhibitions were held in the old Exposition Building. As Chicago grew older, the people little by little became more sophisticated and their interest in local art died. The old enthusiasm had gone. They had become interested in things from abroad. This condition lasted for a good many years. In fact up to fifteen or eighteen years ago this was the universal attitude. It has taken all these years of constant work to get to the point where we are today to build up our own in artistic matters. When I returned from abroad in 1884, it seemed that the general opinion of an artist was that he was an innocuous parasite—of no use to the community or himself. They were not interested in matters of art and to their way of thinking an artist had nothing to do and no way of doing anything. My older brother at that time owned quite a large shoe factory over West Lake Street, and many times he chided or poked fun at me in a good natured way, accusing me of being a member of a useless occupation. Just at that time he was sending out salesmen on their annual trips. One day he said to me: ‘You do not know anything about business,’ and I said ‘anybody can sell shoes—they are different than selling pictures—for everyone has to buy shoes but they could exist without pictures.’ He then said ‘I’ll bet you twenty-five dollars that you could not sell a case of shoes in three weeks.’ I accepted his wager and after spending four days in the factory getting acquainted with the line of shoes, I was sent in to one of their poorest territories which was at that time up around Milwaukee. In about ten days’ time I returned with an order for more shoes than any of their salesman on the road had ever brought in. Another incident I remember was when a certain gentleman was visiting my father, and in their general conversation, this gentleman happened to ask his sons’ vocation. My father said his oldest son was a manufacturer—and well—his other son was ‘just an artist.’ The gentleman replied; ‘Well I suppose its necessary to have a certain number of people who do that sort of thing, but perhaps he won’t be as poverty-stricken as the average.’ This gives a very good idea of the general attitude of the people at that time.”

Mr. Grover then told of the early struggles of the Art Institute of Chicago and of the wonderful co-operation of the women’s clubs and individuals who gave their lives to the building up of this wonderful place for the exhibition of art in Chicago. “There were many times,” said Mr. Grover, “when Mr. Hutchinson, its president, was at loss to know where he was going to secure funds to pay instructors and other necessary running expenses of operation.”

He tells of one incident when Mr. Hutchinson went to one of our wealthy merchants, asking for financial aid for the Art Institute, and how he was met with this promise: ‘When we get through digging Chicago out of the mud, we are going to get behind art and make it boom.’ It was mostly through the hard work of a few individuals of Chicago over a period of thirty or forty years that art has progressed in the middle west.

“The artist of today is taken care of in a great deal better way than ever before,” says Mr. Grover. “Generally speaking, artists today are getting about as much appreciation as they deserve, and some more. Interest on the subject of art and its development has been greatly aided by some of the many writings and talks given, but writers make a mistake in endeavoring to explain art and art appreciation. Persons with common intelligence are capable of telling good art,” says Mr. Grover. You might be interested to know that Mr. Grover received a generous response to a talk given recently over radio for the W.H.T. Radio Art Club which your humble scribe happens to be the founder and present director.

“There is a great danger of having just a little knowledge of technique of art. Good common sense and no technical knowledge is far better than a half-baked technical knowledge. Words cannot explain a picture and a picture is not a picture that has to be explained. It is far better to tell the story with words than try to tell it with a picture if the picture has to be explained.

Then Mr. Grover said: “Modern art is so foreign. It has no appeal to the human intelligence and it has no true expression.” Sane art is the only lasting art.

I then asked Mr. Grover if he would tell us about art education. I also asked him how much general education he thought a prospective artist should have before starting the direct study of art as a profession. “Every artist should have or needs absolutely as high an education as possible. He should have at least the equivalent to a university education. Eighty percent of those that failed to arrive have failed because of lack of training in the beginning. The general inclination today is to be impatient, or to get the most out of the least possible length of time, instead of learning a trade thoroughly.

Mr. Grover went on to say: “An artist that has learned his trade can paint anything—whether it be a landscape, a portrait, or any other kind of a painting provided he has sufficient interest in its work. John Sargent painted great things for people and even modeled when he wanted. It is a mistake to do one stunt and keep doing it. To a great extent this is the fault of the public and dealers. A man paints a picture of Venice—immediately the dealers and public want what they call a characteristic thing of the painter. They practically force him to do the same thing. Artists who have given way to this demand have gone down hill very rapidly. I believe that artists, like all other creative men, should keep themselves alive to everything. After all human emotion is a great thing and without thrill creative work is commonplace. There never was an absolute specialist that has obtained first rank. To my way of thinking, a specialist absolutely defeats the highest creative possibilities. I believe we should prepare to know the trade, or art as a profession in every direction. Mr. Grover is a member of the National Academy of Design and has won a great many prizes, gold medals, and honors throughout the country. Whenever one sees his work they are immediately impressed with the wonderful and accurate sense of color, and the uplifting inspirational impression they give. To my way of thinking, I consider the good qualities found and admired in all of Mr. Grover’s work are simply a reflection of the cultured character of the painter himself—Mr. Oliver Dennett Grover.

One could write at great length about an artist of so much interest and note, but suppose I end this article here with a suggestion that you study over the reproductions accompanying this article and refresh your memory of the work of this great favorite American artist.

Apparently Grover was named after Oliver Dennett Hutchinson, son of Asa Burnham Hutchinson. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rhutch/asa_hutchinson.html

His father Alonzo Jackson was an attorney in Chicago. He published a book        Romanism, the Danger Ahead: The Reason Why a Good Roman Catholic Cannot Be a Good Citizen of This Republic, (Chicago: Craig & Barlow 1887).

Alonzo Jackson Grover (1829-1891) m Octavia Elnora Norton Grover (1839-1904) Children:

Nellie Grover (1856-1864) Ralph Waldo Grover (1858-1889) Oliver Dennett Grover (1861-1927) Neal Grover (1866-1868) Victor Grover (1869- ) Alonzo Jackson Grover (1873-1938)

[1]A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, (Chicago: 1884-1886), Vol. 3, p.422.

[2]There is conflict of 1860 as his birth year in the death certificate versus 1861 which was in the family’s records. We use 1860 as this is the most commonly accepted date and inferences of occurances in his life that relate to his being a certain age also relate to specific years that can be corroborated.

[3]“Oliver D. Grover, Noted Artist, Dead,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 2/15/1927, p.1. He died at Chicago’s Presbyterian hospital with his wife at his side. Lena M. McCauley wrote a eulogy for him in her regular “Point of View” column in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 2/22/1927, p.10. Another eulogy was written by his brother-in-law, Julius Rolshoven, in the 3/8/1927 issue, p.8. Rolshoven is off a few years in his memory of exact dates.

[4]Grover and Rolshoven met as early as 1880. Both were members of the Duveneck school in Florence, see: Michael Quick, An American Painter Abroad: Frank Duveneck’s European Years, (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1987), p.49. A complete list of students is contained on page 49. In 1897 Rolshoven moved to Florence after the death of his wife and lived there until 1914 later returning in 1919 and remaining until 1930 between there and New York City. It is most likely Rolshoven who influenced Grover to Italy and accounted for his spending so much time there. The Rolshoven family was known to be quite wealthy. The Grovers had no children. Mrs. Grover was an accomplished pianist. J. Frederick Lowes, “Oliver Dennett Grover: An Interview,” All Arts Magazine, April 1926, p.9.

Grover was prepared to leave art if he couldn’t support his wife financially, see: William W. Andrew, Otto H. Bacher, (Madison, WI: Education Industries, Inc., 1973), quoting a Bacher letter from Paris, 3/7/1886.

[5]Grover’s father had hired Brooks to come to Earlville and paint portraits of various members of the family.  See: Arthur Nicholas Hosking, “Oliver Dennett Grover, Painter,” The Sketch Book, Vol. V, No. 1. September, 1905, p.2. In op. cit., Lowes, All Arts Magazine, April 1926, p.9, Grover mentions the portraits by Brooks and it’s influence upon him but no formal study with Brooks. “Grover, Oliver Dennett,” National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.480 states he was educated in Chicago however the interview with Grover by Lowes confirms he came to Chicago at age 16 to enter university.

[6]Catalogue of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, Omega Chapter, “Class of 1882,” p.318. Op. cit., Lowes, All Arts Magazine, April 1926, p.9. He reportedly made crayon drawings to pay his way through college and was studying law there, op. cit., Hosking, The Sketch Book, September, 1905, p.p.2.

[7]“Art Notes,” The Graphic, 9/26/1891, p.202 and Ralph Elmer Clarkson, “Chicago Painters, Past and Present,” Art & Archeology, Vol. 12, Nos. 3 and 4, September-October 1921, pp. 136-137. See also: Harriet Hayden Hayes, “Chicago Artists And Their Work,” The National Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 1897, p. 58. In the interview in op. cit., Lowes, All Arts Magazine, April 1926, p.9, Grover states he studied at the Academy during evenings and weekends while attending the University of Chicago. See also “Grover, Oliver D.,” National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.480.

[8]“In Chicago Studios. Sketch Of Oliver D. Grover,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/4/1890, p.5. He defrayed expenses working as a newspaper correspondent. Virginia Couse Levitt discusses Duveneck and Rolshoven studying at the Munich Academy with Ludwig von Loefftz, in “Julius Rolshoven (1858-1930), Artists of Michigan From The Nineteenth Century, (Muskegon: Muskegon Museum of Art, 1987), p.149, however in op. cit., Lowes, All Arts Magazine, April 1926, p.9, Grover stated he studied two years under Gyula-Julius-de-Benczuer. Rolshoven also stated in his diary he and Grover had different masters, Rolshoven studying under Straehuber [sic]. See also: Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.480.

[9]Duveneck organized a school in 1878 which by 1879 included some thirty students, among them Joseph DeCamp, Otto Bacher, Julius Rolshoven and Grover. For a complete list of the group from 1880, see the plate on page 7, in Elizabeth Wylie, Explorations In Realism: 1870-1880. Frank Duveneck And His Circle From Bavaria To Venice, (Framingham, MA: Danforth Museum of Art, 1989). This group came to be known as the “Duveneck Boys.” Once in Florence by November 1879, the group numbered only half, or fifteen (those are named in the Danforth Museum catalogue on p.11), and could only be expanded with a special vote. It seems Grover may have joined in the third wave of students to arrive in very later 1879 or early 1880 as he was not accounted among the members of the first two groups from October and November, see: Josephine W. Duveneck, Frank Duveneck: Painter – Teacher, (San Francisco: John Howell Books, 1970), pp.82-83.

Rolshoven was in this group and naturally, since the group were students in Munich, the two met there and became better aquatinted in Italy, see: Michael Quick, An American Painter Abroad: Frank Duveneck's European Years, (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum 1987), p.49. See also: Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.480. “The number [of American students] dropped to 37 in 1879 [at the Munich Royal Academy], when Duveneck took a portion of the growing number of students along with him to Italy as students in his class.” See: Quick, p.36. Quick notes on p.49, the classes concluded for the last time in April 1881. The group wintered in Florence and summered in Venice.

[10]“O. D. Grover, now resident in Florence…,” in “The Pictures,” Chicago Tribune, 3/13/1883, p.7.

[11]Op. cit., Hosking, The Sketch Book, September, 1905, p.4. Lilias Bill, “Notes from an Interview with Oliver Dennett Grover,” The Poster, May 1923, p.14. In op. cit., Lowes, All Arts Magazine, April 1926, p.9, Grover states he studied with Boulanger for a year after which he returned to Chicago in 1884.

[12]Information is taken from http://www.cyclorama.com, which is the site of         Ste. Anne-de-Beaupré in Canada where the work is now located and open to the public. “Paul Philippoteaux of Paris, famous French artist with an international reputation, who had executed among other famous panoramas, the Siege of Paris, the Battle of Gettysburg and also that of Waterloo, was chosen to be the leading artist. The five other associates, also recognized with a world celebrity, who assisted him in that colossal work, are: Messrs. S. Mège and E. Gros, of Paris, C.A. Corwin and O.D. Grover, of Chicago and E.J. Austen, of London. Together, they worked for four full years on the huge painting, completed in Munich in 1882.” See also “Crucifixion Cyclorama Opens,” Chicago Tribune, 5/7/1893, p.6. The list of artists is confirmed in Cyclorama!! Brief History Of The City and description of the Cyclorama and how it was produced, Key to the Painting with Maps and Plans, Jerusalem A.D.29, (Melbourne: Melbourne Cyclorama Co., Ltd., 1893), which mentions Grover was responsible for the “Oriental” figures.

[13]Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 6/4/1890, p.5.

[14]Op. cit., Bill, The Poster, May 1923, p.14.

[15]Op. cit., McCauley, The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/12/1929, p.10. The owners were Howard H. Gross and Isaac N. Reed. See also letter from Otto Bacher to Gari Melchers 10/10/1886: “Another thing of good news is that Grover, Anderson, John Twachtman and Reinhardt are painting oil painting panoramas near Chicago and have done one that was a great success. They are paid sixty dollars per week…” Also see His work on the cyclorama was mentioned in the [St. Paul] Pioneer Press, 12/21/1886, p.3. Information courtesy of Gene Meier.

[16]The owners of this work were Howard H. Gross and Dr. Pierpoint in Englewood (Chicago). Other painters who were employed by French artist Paul Philippoteaux who had been hired by Chicago entrepreneurs to create the work included John Henry Twachtman and Thadeus Welch, who were close friends, Arthur Davies, Warren Davis, Harry Vincent, Frank Charles Peyraud, and Charles Able Corwin. Grover’s part in mural, that of the army surgeons at work, was pointed out when the cyclorama was installed in Pittsburgh, in “The Gettysburg Battle,” Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, 6/14/1887, p.5. In C. J. Bulliet, “Story of Peyraud,” Art Digest, Vol. 22, 2/1/1948, p.18, he states that over twenty copies of the cyclorama were painted and shipped to cities around the Midwest. It is possible this information is an exaggeration as most historical scholars can point to only four versions, one of which, the second version that was shown in Boston, is at the Gettysburg National Military Park. One mural was owned by Wake Forest University that as of 2005 was looking for a buyer who would conserve the work. Reference is made to this work by Otto Bacher in William W. Andrew, Otto H. Bacher, (Madison, WI: Education Industries, Inc., 1973), quoting a Bacher letter from Venice, 10/10/1886. Grover was earning sixty dollars per week for the work. See also, Lena M. McCauley, “Stories Of Our Artists,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/12/1929, p.10. Those interested in cycloramas should check Theodore R. Davis, “How a Great Battle Panoram Is Made,” St. Nicholas, Vol. 14, December 1886, pp.99-112.

[17]Lena M. McCauley, “Of World’s Fair Days,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, Chicago Evening Post, 9/18/1923. The sidewall panels still extant are illustrated in Mary Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Murals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p.9. Mary Gray incorrectly attributes the dining hall mural to Grover who was only an assistant to Fleury. For further edification see the timeline on Albert F. Fleury in this book.

[18]Grover was responsible for the general arrangement and composition of the figures. Rev. David Swing, A Story Of The Chicago Fire, (Chicago: Reed and Gross, 1891), p.39. This pamphlet courtesy of Gene Meier, who also provided an entry from the F.W. Heine diaries, 7/5/1891. The diary mentions Grover was painting with other Illinois artists Charles Abel Corwin, Edgar Spier Cameron, Albert Francois Fleury, and Cephas Henry Collins. Chicago Tribune, 8/16/1891, p.28; “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 10/4/1891, p.32; “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 10/11/1891, p.37. See also, Op. cit., Hayes, The National Magazine, April 1897, p.58. Grover’s partner Ernest Albert was in charge of the architectural pieces. The work was on exhibit for two years at a building just south of the Chicago Athletic Association on Michigan Avenue. It was later offered to the Chicago Park Board. “Panorama For The Park,” Chicago Tribune, 2/25/1900, p.8.

[19]A description of the firm can be found in Chicago And Its Resources Twenty Years After 1871-1891, (Chicago: The Chicago Times Company, 1892), pp.24-25. Grover and Albert were working together as early as 1890 on a “transformation scene” in a pantomime showing in Chicago: Chicago Times, 11/16/1890 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, col. 1, p.14. A brief announcement of the partnership was made in “An Artist Of Merit,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/4/1892, p.5, that stated they had been working together for some time. See also an article about Albert, “Fine Scenic Artist,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/3/1892, p.5. In 1892 they completed decorations for the Schiller Theater in Chicago. “Art and Artists,” The Graphic, No. 15, 10/8/1892, p.257. Eugene B. Meier, Jr. research shows they completed a cyclorama for the 1893 Columbian Exposition entitled Kilauea Volcano, and references a contract dated 5/12/1892 between L. A. Thurston, Secretary of the Kilauea Cyclorama Company and Albert, Grover & Burridge for the production of the cyclorama painting. See also: “The Evolution of a World’s Fair Panorama,” Graphic, 2/25/1893, p.139, citation courtesy of Mr. Meier.

The Evolution of a World’s Fair Panorama

[20]Chicago Tribune, 1/2/1892 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, p.74.

[21]“The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 4/16/1893, p.39. Blanche M. Howard, “Society of Western Artists. Chicago Group,” Arts For America, Vol. 7, No. 7, March 1898, p.406. Grover also completed a series of paintings with the fair as subject matter which he sold to his patrons.

[22]This was a scaled down cyclorama production of the Spectatorium housed where the previous Chicago Fire Cyclorama Building was at 130 Michigan Avenue. Other artists active in the project included Frank Charles Peyraud, Frank Berberstein, and Edwin J. Austen. Op. cit., MacKaye, Epoch, 1968, Vol. Two, p.438.

[23]“Local Tone,” The Arts, Vol. 3, No. 4, October 1894, p.126. “The Chicago Society of Artists have made a new departure this winter in the form of a series of art lectures. O. D. Grover will give an interesting lecture on ‘Local Art’, a subject that should be of interest to every mother who has children to educate.”

[24]“Shows His Paintings,” Chicago Tribune, 3/7/1895, p.12. “About Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/8/1895, p.5. The library was donated in memory of Timothy B. Blackstone’s father. Blackstone was president of the Chicago & Alton Railroad and prominent in Chicago. Grover and Blackstone were friends, and the Blackstone family was from Branford, hence the connections. See also: AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 12, p.151. The eight paintings, representing the evolution of bookmaking are (1) Gathering the Papyrus; (2) Records of the Pharaohs; (3) Stories from the Iliad; (4) Medieval Illumination; (5) Venetian Copperplate Printing; (6) First Proof of the Gutenberg Bible; (7) The Franklin Press; and (8) A Bookbindery in 1895. Mr. Grover also painted the medallion portraits of Bryant, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, and Stowe that are placed in the marble spandrels between the arches. Work was on-going on those portratis in the spring of 1896 as mentioned by Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/9/1896, p.14. The height of the dome from the main floor is 50 feet. He was still at work on the murals during the summer of 1895 as mentioned in Lucie Van Nevar, “Off For the Fields,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 4/28/1895, p.31. Apparently, he completed them (at least partially) in his Chicago studio as noted by Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/18/1896, p.10. A working sketch of a monk was illustrated in “Chicago Models To Form A Union,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, 12/16/1900, p.37. A recap of the work was provided in Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/7/1904, p.9.

[25]Grover was under contract from the decorating contractor W. P. Nelson Company. The work was over 100 feet long. “Holy Angels Is Ready,” Chicago Tribune, 9/12/1897, p.14. Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/5/1897, p.10 and 9/4/1897, p.10; “The Fine Arts: Of Local Interest,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 9/5/1897, p.35; “Art: Art News In General,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 11/7/1897, p.39; Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.481; “Art Notes,” Brush and Pencil, Vol. 1, No. 1, September 1897, p.17: “It is not generally known, however, that several figures were executed entirely by Mr. Johansen of the Institute.” The entire cathedral was burned to the ground in June 1986.

[26]Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/1/1897, p.10.

[27]Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/12/1897, p.10.

[28]Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 7/23/1898, p.10; “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 9/24/1898,  in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 10, p.33, there were two figure compositions representing “Art” and “Music” located over the proscenium arch. Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.480.

[29]“Art,” Sunday Chicago Tribune, 1/8/1899, p.33.

[30]The work was thoroughly described in Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/27/1900, p.8. The work was show at W. Scott Thurber Gallery upon completion, op. cit., 2/10/1900, p.8.

[31]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/31/1900, p.8.

[32]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/26/1900, p.8.

[33]The other artists who participated in this project included Martha S. Baker, Charles F. Browne, Ralph E. Clarkson and the Leyendecker brothers. The murals were installed in January 1906. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/20/1906, p.5. “Mural Art Stirs Women,” Chicago Tribune, 1/18/1906, p.9.

[34]James W. Pattison, “Pattison on Pictures,” Chicago Journal, 3/26/1901, p.8. “Chicago Artists Have Their Woes,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 4/28/1901, magazine section, p.6.

[35]James W. Pattison, “Pattison on Pictures,” Chicago Journal, 3/27/1901, p.4. The portrait was done in various shades of browns reflecting the influence of Whistler. She was the daughter of Harlan W. Cooley a prominent businessman and lawyer.

[36]Chicago Journal, 9/7/1901 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 14, p.99. The same lecture was given later that year at the free series in the Art Institute of Chicago.

[37]She was the daughter of prominent Chicago banker A. G. Becker. James W. Pattison, “Pattison’s Art Talk,” Chicago Journal, 4/16/1902, p.4.

[38]“[…] New Library: O. D. Grover Is to Paint Panels For the Blackstone,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/23/1901, p.8. In preparation for the mural he visited New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh and Detroit to see murals in those cities. Critic Isabel McDougall felt this commission would be for the first important murals in the city. “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/10/1902, p.18. Progress was reported in Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 9/13/1902, p.14. Grover was quite friendly with Blackstone and it was appropriate, since he had done a fine job on the murals in Branford, his widow Isabel, chose Grover again for the decorations. See also: Chicago Record, 11/30/1901 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 15, p.9. The building was located at “the intersection of Lake and Washington avenues,” and was designed by Solon S. Beman, who was a close friend of Grover’s. Don Baum forward to exhibition catalogue Hyde Park Art, Past & Present, as quoted in Goldene Shaw, History of the Hyde Park Art Center, 1939-1976, (Chicago: Hyde Park Art Center, 1976), p.18.  The article was mistaken, however, as the building was to be located at 49th Street and Lake Park Avenue on the South Side near the University of Chicago. He was given an entire room to display the work before installation at the Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity show in 1903 and almost every newspaper critique of the show mentioned his works. See for example, “Annual Exhibition Of Pictures By Chicago Artists At The Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 2/4/1903, p.3. The library took two years to be built and was dedicated on January 8, 1904. The building was renovated in 1980. Architect Beman’s son was noted South Side of Chicago artist Roff Beman (1891-1940). The work is illustrated in Mary Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Murals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p.153, and incorrectly dated “1904.” For illustrations and background see also, The Inland Architect and News Record, March 1903,              vol.41, no.2

[39]Lena M. McCauley, “Art,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/12/1904, p.9.

[40]The Sketch Book, Vol. V, No. 1, September 1905 and Vol. V, No.4, December 1905, pp.177-178. Lena M. McCauley, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 9/2/1905, p.7.

[41]“Celebrated Artists Engaged By The Tribune For Special Paintings Of Kirmess Dancers: Oliver Dennett Grover, Leader In Mural Paintings,” Chicago Tribune, 1/10/1906, p.A2.

[42]Perry R. Duis, “‘All Else Passes-Art Alone Endures’ The Fine Arts Building 1918 - 1930,” Chicago History, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 1978, pp. 40-51. Also see “Among Chicago Galleries,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 36, October 1918, p.25 and “Notes. About Chicago Artists,” American Magazine of Art, Vol. 9, October 1918, p.506. This section drew advertisements for Red Cross, Liberty Loans, Food Conservation, War Savings Stamps, War Exposition and Salvation Army Drives. A detailed statement of the need for posters and illustrations to support the war effort is found in Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, May 1917, Vol. 11, No. 5, p.315.

[43]“South Bend Art Festival,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 10/17/1922, p.11.

[44]“Terre Haute Exhibit,” “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 3/13/1923.

[45]Helen Fish, “Busy Season Ahead for Rockford,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 10/6/1925, p.6. Grover was the keynote speaker for the evening. “Chicago Art Exhibit Now On View Here,” Rockford Register Republic, 10/20/1925.

[46]All-Arts Magazine, Vol. II, No. 3, p.5.

[47]“Art Notes,” The Graphic, 9/26/1891, p.202. This is perhaps the school Hosking refers to which he opened with Julius Rolshoven, op. cit., Hosking, The Sketch Book, September, 1905, p.4.

[48]“Studio and Gallery Notes,” Chicago Tribune, 10/29/1882, p.19. Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 6/4/1890, p.5, and Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.480.

[49]A school circular had been printed that he would begin in 1884 for the evening class, but was later reprinted to include a different professor. “Art and Artists,” Chicago Inter Ocean, 1/4/1885, p.15.

[50]“Arrangement of Classes,” School Circular 1891-1892, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, after p.71. He retired at the end of the that school year as announced in School Circular, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 9/1/1892, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, p.127.

[51]Ralph Clarkson comments on Grover’s early teaching career in “Chicago Painters, Past and Present,” Art and Archaeology, Vol. 12, Nos. 3 and 4, September-October 1921, pp.136-137. “…impressed himself quickly upon the students… by his vigorous handling of the head and the human figure… His work as chief instructor of the Art Institute did much to raise the character of that school.” He retired from the Art Institute of Chicago position to concentrate on his recently opened scenic painting studio, see: “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 5/8/1892, p.44.

A student who became a miniature painter of note, Carolyn Dow Tyler, had a letter of reminiscences published in Lena M. McCauley’s column, “How Pleasant To Remember,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/20/1927, p.8: “No matter how poor a drawing was, Mr. Grover always left an encouraging word for it. He saw some seed of progress in a mass of struggling effort.”

[52]Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.481.

[53]“Art,” Sunday Chicago Tribune, 4/3/1898, p.31. He and his brother-in-law, Julius Rolshoven conducted a school there.

[54]The Sketch Book, November 1903, p.4A. Grover did not return for the 1903 Fall semester as he remained abroad, see: Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 8/29/1903, p.8. During the summer of 1903 he had lent his studio to the Academy for a summer school. Edward G. Holden, “In The Field Of Art,” Chicago Tribune, 5/17/1903, p.56.

[55]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/4/1908, p.4, and Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.481.

[56]Records at the Ryerson Library Archives, Art Institute of Chicago. He taught Life painting and then Portrait painting.

[57]“The Week In Art Circles,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 3/14/1915 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 32. He took Frank Duveneck’s place for a few months.

[58]“Art Notes,” The Graphic, 9/26/1891, p.202. Various accounts give this date as 1875 and 1876. However in Letter to Frank Werner from Oliver D. Grover, CELA Archives, Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago, 12/26/1914 Grover states “I came with my parents to live in Chicago in 1876 - and this has been my home ever since. Grover goes on, “I have been away - abroad principally - for varying periods, but have never voted elsewhere, or considered any other place a permanent residence.”

[59]He returned from European studies and took a studio in Chicago in 1882. “Art In Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1882, p.9. Early in his career (1891) he shared a studio with Ernest Albert in the Athenaeum building. “Art Notes,” The Graphic, 4/4/1891, p.223. Later he lived in Florence and Riva Schiavoni, Italy as well as keeping residence in Chicago. “He is associated with the Art Institute in this city and maintains a studio at 23 Via Bisarno, Florence, Italy, where he spends half the year.” See: Chicago Evening Post, 12/21/12 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 29. He and his wife later lived at Tree Studio building, 9 E. Ontario Street. See: “In The Studios,” “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 5/9/1922. Also, letter to Mr. Gest, Cincinnati Art Museum from Grover, 12/18/1925, CAM Library Director Gest files.

[60]Detroit City Directory.

[61]He was most likely in Venice during the summers along with Duveneck and Otto Bacher and some of the other “Duveneck Boys” since the Duveneck School let out in April in Florence. It is a well documented fact that Whistler arrived in Venice in 1879 and in May 1880 moved into the Casa Jankowitz where some of the “Boys” lived and others lived near by, see Danforth, p.13. “The example of Bacher and Whistler led many of the Boys into their own experiments with etching.”

[62]He was maintaining a studio there according to “Art in Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1882, p.9

[63]“Notes from Studio and Gallery,” Chicago Tribune, 7/16/1882, p.10.

[64]“The Art League. Third Annual Reception and Exhibition at the Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 3/13/1883.

[65]“Art In Chicago: Notes,” Chicago Tribune, 5/25/1885, p.9.

[66]William W. Andrew, Otto H. Bacher, (Madison, WI: Education Industries, Inc., 1973), quoting a Bacher letter from Paris, 3/15/1886. Grover was to join George Henry Clements (1854-1935) and explore teaching there, most likely at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. Bacher went on to say “Grover is one of the finest type of men that I know of.” Letter seems incomplete, check archives of amer. Art for complete text.

[67]Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 6/4/1890, p.5.

[68]“Mr. Grover will start away with the sketching tour to the Adirondacks, under Mr. Carpenter’s management...,” in, “Art Institute Prizes,” Chicago Sunday Herald, 6/24/1888, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 4, col. 3, p.61. Also see, “July In The Adirondacks,” advertising brochure, AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 6, frame 37 (two pages per frame). “Art at Home,” Chicago Tribune, 5/20/1888, p.27. The sketching party was under the management of Newton H. Carpenter, secretary of the Art Institute of Chicago and Grover and Roswell M. Shurtleff were the instructors. They traveled to: Keene Valley; Niagara Falls; Toronto; Montreal all en route. The trip was from June 27th until August 1st.

[69]“Local Art Conquers: Award of the C. T. Yerkes Prizes to Chicago Artists,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 6/5/1892, p.7.

[70]In a February 21, 1911 letter to Grover from William M. R. French of the Art Institute of Chicago the address was listed as Villa Gettaia, Florence, Italy.

[71]“Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/18/1896, p.10. His companions on this trip included his good friends Lorado Taft and Charles F. Browne in addition to Alice Kellogg Tyler, and the sculptors Charles Mulligan and Bessie Potter (Vonnoh).

[72]Oliver Dennett Grover, “American Art In Comparison With Foreign Art,” Arts For America, Vol. 8, No. 5, 2/15/1899, pp. 280, 283 and Blanche M. Howard, “Society of Western Artists. Chicago Group,” Arts For America, Vol. 7, No. 7, March 1898, p.406. He sailed for Europe on November 6 as per op. cit., Sunday Inter Ocean, 11/7/1897, p.39 not on October 15 as noted in “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 10/9/1897, p.10. His imminent return for the summer of 1898 was announced in “Art,” Sunday Chicago Tribune, 5/22/1898, p.34 and Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/28/1898, p.10. His letter published in Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/2/1898, p.10, notes he was two months in Paris and two months in London, where he spent time at the studio of John Singer Sargent viewing his latest portraits.

[73]Ganymede Book, Register of guests visiting Wallace Heckman Farm - Ganymede, Oregon, Illinois, entry signed 8/22/1901, IHAP Library. The start of the summer art colony is discussed extensively in Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 7/23/1898, p.10. Entries also appear on 9/13/1906 visiting with his artist brother-in-law Julius Rolshoven; 9/11/1912 his wife’s signature appears without his implying she did not travel with him that year; 8/7/1916; 8/7/1921; 10/27/1923, however it is for certain he was there many years in addition to those signed in the book. Announcement of the art colony in 1898 was accompanied with his name as one of the founders in “Fresh Air For Art,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 8/7/1898, p.31.

[74]“Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/23/1901, p.8.

[75]AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 15, col. 1, p.158. He was touring sites of mural paintings for ideas in his upcoming commission at the Blackstone Library in Chicago.

[76]He represented the Chicago chapter of the Society of Western Artists at its convention there.

[77]After finishing the murals for the Blackstone Library, he was to travel to Europe for six months. See: Lena M. McCauley, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/18/1903, p.14.

[78]Edward G. Holden, “In the Field of Art: Artists and Their Summers,” Chicago Tribune, 9/20/1903, p.54. James W. Pattison, “Pattison’s Art Talk,” Chicago Journal, 5/16/1903, p.6. He traveled with his wife. They also visited Germany on the way home. Pattison discusses his work from this trip depth in Chicago Journal, 1/9/1904, p.4.

[79]“News of the Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 7/26/1903, p.35.

[80]Lena M. McCauley, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 8/20/1904, p.9 and 9/24/1904, p.9. He returned in September to his studio in the Fine Arts Building. See also: Maude I. G. Oliver, “Reviews,” International Studio, Vol. 26, September 1905, p.267.

[81]Chicago Evening Post, 2/25/1905 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 20. He and his wife attended the reception given in honor of Julius Rolshoven at the Detroit Museum.

[82]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/2/1906, p.4.

[83]Chicago Record-Herald, 9/30/1906 and 7/7/1907 and 1/4/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 22, 23, 25. He let his studio to Caroline Thurber in 1907. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/16/1907, p.5.  That he was in Florence for the winter of 1907-1908 is mentioned by Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/4/1908, p.6. He stayed with his brother-in-law Julius Rolshoven and later located a house at 29 Via Della Ruote. Harriet Monroe, “Summer Plans of Chicago Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 6/6/1909, Drama/Society/Editorial, p.5. In March 1910, he was back in Chicago for a one man show at Reinhardt’s Gallery. In January 1909 he had recently returned and opened classes at the Art Institute. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/16/1909, p.4.  “Spanish Painter Is Coming,” Chicago Tribune, 3/26/1909, p.12. He and his wife were off again in the summer. “News Of The Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 4/20/1909, p.11.

[84]“Many Attend Exhibitions Of The Western Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 1/6/1909, p.8.

[85]Evidence is based upon a work entitled Venetian Canal Scene, inscribed 1909, sold at Weschler & Sons, lot 675, 4/21/2007.

[86]“Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/20/1911, p.6.

[87]Letter to Mr. N. H. Carpenter from William M. R. French, French Papers, Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago, 6/25/1912. Grover was fishing.

[88]Chicago Herald, 7/3/1916 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 34. He was also at Lake Louise. Harriet Monroe, “Four Art Exhibitions Open at the Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 12/13/1912, p.14.

[89]“Society and Entertainments: Chicago Artists Meet,” Chicago Tribune, 12/17/1912, p.16. He was in Italy for the summer and fall. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/19/1913, p.6.

[90]Information from painting dated 1913, Venice, From the Steps of San Giorgio Maggiore, courtesy of Spanierman Galleries.

[91]He was reported to be returning due to the outbreak of World War I, see: “Chicago Artists And Educators In Danger Zone,” Chicago Tribune, 8/4/1914 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 32. However, a later article in Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 8/22/1914, p.6, reported he was outside of the fighting zone.

[92]Exhibition record, 1915 Chicago & Vicinity show.

[93]Chicago Herald, 7/3/1916 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 34.

[94]They were on their way home from California.

[95]“Live Persons and Events,” in “News of the Art World,”Chicago Evening Post, 8/7/1917, p.11.

[96]“Up To The Times,” in “News Of The Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 8/26/1919, p.11.

[97]This included New Mexico. “The Art Dealers,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 12/28/1920, p.9.

[98]He was painting portrait commissions including that of noted artist John C. Johansen. “Portrait by Mr. Grover,” in “News of the Art World,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/14/1921, p.11.

[99]“Art and Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 4/1/1923, p.D10. He gave a lecture on “Venice of Today and Yesterday” at the Chicago Woman’s club after his return. “Oliver Dennett Grover,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 12/4/1923.

[100]“Mr. Grover in Atlanta,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 5/20/1924. He was invited as guest of honor with the Chicago contingent who went there for the show.

[101]“Here and There,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 7/29/1924.

[102]They sailed on April 26th, and first visited Genoa. “En Route to Europe,” All-Arts Magazine, Vol. II, No. 5, May 1926, p.41. They summered in Florence to visit with Julius Rolshoven and his wife at their villa, Castello Diavello, see: “Local Artists Going Abroad for Summer,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 5/11/1926, p.14 and “Local Artists’ Work Abroad Wins Watson,” in the 8/30/1927 issue, p.7.

[103]A painting titled in this Province was located by the author.

[104]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/12/1900, p.8.

[105]Rollin Lynde Hartt, “Our Coming University Of Art,” Chicago Tribune, 1/12/1918, p.6. “School: Meeting of the Officers of the Alumni Association,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, February 1917, Vol. 11, No. 2, p.277. “School,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Mar., 1918), p.53.

[106]“Artists Design Yule Cards For Boys In France,” Chicago Tribune, 10/28/1917, p.14.

[107]Lena M. McCauley, “Art Service League Aims to Unite Arts,” in “News of the Art World” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 1/13/1920, p.8. American Art Annual, (Washington, DC: The American Federation of Arts, 1920), Vol. 17, p.124. The name was later changed to the National Art Service League. It was mostly a Chicago effort by artists to assist the War effort with production of posters for the Red Cross, Liberty Loan, conservation of food and other causes. Brief mention is made in Eleanor Jewett, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 6/8/1919, p.F6.

[108]Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 6/4/1890, p.5, and Chicago Times, 11/16/1890 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, p.14.

[109]See Lloyd C. Englebrecht, “Modernism and Design,” The Old Guard and the Avant-Garde, (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1990), 119-138 for a good discussion on this and related organizations. The Grovers were financial supporters of the organization as well. Chicago Journal, 4/26/1922 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 43, p.77. Mme X, “News Of Chicago Society,” Chicago Tribune, 4/23/1922, p.F4.

[110]“Painters, Sculptors Exhibit in Evanston,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/4/1928, p.6.

[111]“New Club Of Bohemian Spirits,” Chicago Tribune, 2/17/1895, p.12. Given the roster of members the architects and artists of this group were those who had been spending summers in Bass Lake, IN.

[112]Grover and others organized the Chicago Society of Artists to an auction of works to raise funds for the poor, especially needed at the time of a great Depression in Chicago in 1893.

[113]“Chicago’s Fine Arts,” Chicago Daily News, Supplement, 4/3/1890, p.3.

[114]He became president when the club was re-formed several years later after inactivity. “Chicago Society Of Artists,” New York Times, 4/6/1902, p.2. “President Of New Society Of Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 4/7/1902, p.11. A photograph of Grover appears with the announcement.

[115]“Artists Elect Officers,” Chicago Tribune, 4/4/1922, p.23.

[116]“Cliff Dwellers In Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, 11/7/1907, p.8.

[117]“Oliver Dennett and Charles [Francis Browne], landscape painters, used the whole panorama as their studios. They found plenty of subjects, such as the long-remembered ‘vervaine year,’ when all our gentle hills were clothed in blue and lavender.” This quote gives a vivid idea of how the painters used the surrounding area of the art colony for subject matter. Ada Bartlett Taft, Lorado Taft Sculptor and Citizen, (Greensboro, NC: Privately published, 1946), p.47.

[118]“Little Room List of Members -1913,” Municipal Art League of Chicago stationery, Newberry Library, Midwest, MS, Little Room, Box 2, 1913. “The Little Room I View,” Chicago Tribune, 4/15/1942, p.16.

[119]In 1903 he authored an article entitled “True Function of  Municipal Art Leagues” for Brush and Pencil exposing his ideas thoroughly on the subject.

[120]This was a prestigious organization of only 30 members in 1913 including John White Alexander, William M. Chase, Robert Henri, George Luks and Robert Vonnoh. Chase scholar Frederick Baker noted Chase inscribed a landscape to Grover.

[121] Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.481.

[122]James W. Pattison, “Pattison’s Art Talk,” Chicago Journal, 12/26/1903, p.4.

[123]“Shows Notable Work,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/25/1905, p.5.

[124]Lena M. McCauley, “From Here and There,” in “News Of The Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 3/26/1918, p.11.

[125]The concept of the prize being offered was announced in “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 3/20/1892, p.40, and a second prize was announced in Daily Inter Ocean, 3/25/1892, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, p.90. The award itself was announced in “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 5/29/1892, p.16. The exhibition was held at Stevens Gallery from 5/30 to 6/20/1892. The painting Thy Will Be Done, was thoroughly discussed in “Some Fine Pictures,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/27/1892, p.5.

Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837-1905) was owner of the largest cable railway system in the United States, located in Chicago. He had came to Chicago in 1881 originally to enter the banking business. Philanthropic, also as a means to regain lost fame, he donated the Yerkes planetarium to the University of Chicago and a $100,000 fountain for Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The painting was exhibited again at the World’s Columbian Exposition and then sold to raise funds during the Depression of 1893. For more information on the hardships of the artists see: “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 12/24/1893, p.26. It is doubtful Grover would have sold this now famous piece rather than using it as a promotional tool at various exhibitions where it would have undoubtedly been invited to.

[126]“When The Artists Get Together,” Chicago Times, 1/2/1892. The purpose of the department was “to facilitate conventions of architects, painters, sculptors, decorative designers, photographers, art writers, students, and patrons of art... to consider the living questions in their respective divisions... and to provide for popular congresses in which the relations of art to human progress will be set forth by the attending masters.” He served on this committee with Charles L. Hutchinson, president of the Art Institute of Chicago, Walter C. Larded, vice chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago, Halsey C. Ives, director of the Fine Arts for the World’s Columbian Exposition, architect Daniel H. Burnham, chief of construction for the World’s Fair, sculptor Lorado Taft, designer Louis J. Millet, Honorable J. B. Bradwell, William M. R. French, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, James H. Dole and Newton H. Carpenter, secretary of the Art Institute of Chicago.

[127]“Exhibit By Chicago Artists,” Chicago Chronicle, 3/5/1899. The purchased his Morning, illustrated in “The Exhibition Of Chicago Artists,” Brush and Pencil, Vol. 4, No. 1, April 1899, p.49. It is likely this purchase was through the Chicago Woman’s Club who noted purchasing a second painting as well in Frank and Jerome, compilers, Annals of the Chicago Woman’s Club For the First Forty Years of its Organization 1876-1916, (Chicago: Chicago Woman’s Club, April 1916), p.203. The Club was disbanded and in 1999 the collection went to Roosevelt University, the paintings were not among those in the inventory at that time.

[128]“Chicago Artists Awarded Prizes At St. Louis Fair,” Chicago Tribune, 11/2/1904, p.4.

[129]The prize was awarded his painting Study Head, and was split this first year, among five artists including Charles F. Browne, Ralph Elmer Clarkson, , Louis Meakin, Frederick Sylvester. It was illustrated in: Maude I. G. Oliver, “Eleventh Annual Exhibition Of The Society of Western Artists,” International Studio, Vol. 31, March 1907, pp. 24-26. She said it was: “A masterly rendition of materials swept in with few strokes in the velvet and satin of the jacket.” See also: Maude I. G. Oliver, “The Year With The Western Artists,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 12/16/1906 Men’s Magazine section, p.6.

[130]“Three Paintings by ‘Home Artists’ That Win Prizes in Annual Chicago Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 1/4/1910, p.3, illustrates Grover’s The Riva, awarded the prize. The piece is in the collection of the Union League Club of Chicago.

[131]They purchased his work The Riva. Harriet Monroe, “Further Reflections on Work of Chicago Artists in Recent Exhibit,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1/30/1910, part 8, p.6.

[132]The prize was awarded his painting June Morning on Lake Orta, now in the Art Institute of Chicago. “Some of the Prize Winners at Annual Art Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 11/14/1913, p.3.

[133]The prize this year was split between five artists including Herman Wessel of Cincinnati, Pauline Palmer of Chicago, Carl Waldeck of St. Louis and Gustav von Schlegell of St. Louis.

[134]“Karl Anderson Gets Medal,” Chicago News, 12/9/1918 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 38. “School,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Mar., 1918), p.53.

[135]“Artists Here Get War Jobs,” Chicago American, 2/22/1918 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 36. He was one of nine artists appointed to the committee. As part of this honor, he received a commission as a Captain in the Army Corps of Engineers Reserves.

[136]He served on this committee with William M. Chase and William A. Coffin.  The prize selection occurred during the Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual. “Notes on Current Art,” Chicago Tribune, 6/1/1890, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol.4, col. 1, p.141. “Art and Artists,” Inter Ocean, Vol. XIX, No. 77, 6/15/1890, p.13.

[137]In 1922, Grover had recommended changes in the jury process which he hoped would limit the effect of the more modern element and artists. This was the beginning of a battle which forced a split in the Chicago Society of Artists, the conservative element forming the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors. See: “Chicago Painter Made Target Of Artists’ Attacks,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/22/1922 and Marguerite B. Williams, “Art Institute Rules Roil Chicago Society,” Chicago News, 5/24/1922 and “Artists Vote Down ‘Outside Jury’ Rule,” Chicago Journal, 5/26/1922, all in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 43.

[138]He was voted chairman of the jury committee. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/6/1902, p.18.

[139]He showed two works for his commission from Solon Beman for the Blackstone Library in Connecticut. They were noted as “strong, simple and fresh in color and conceived in a true decorative spirit.” “Art Gossip,” Chicago Tribune, 5/28/1895, p.37.

[140]Eleanor Jewett, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 3/23/1919, p.D7. The winner’s cover would be used for their new publication.

[141]“Notes Of Artists And Ateliers,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/21/1893, p.4.

[142]“Art,” Sunday Chicago Tribune, 4/9/1899, part 4, p.4.

[143]Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 3/7/1926, p.E12.

[144]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 9/25/1913, p.8. He was a member of the Midwest advisory committee chaired by Frank Duveneck. Harriet Monroe, “Smaller Cities Aspire to be Homes of Art Museums,” Chicago Tribune, 10/5/1913, p.B8.

[145]“Notes on Current Art,” Chicago Tribune, 6/11/1890, p.26.

[146]His painting Mending The Nets [Chioggia, Italy] was illustrated in James Spencer Dickenson, “The Society Of Western Artists,” World To-Day, Vol. 10, March 1906, p.296 and Maude I. G. Oliver, “What Western Artists Show In This Year’s Exhibit,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 12/10/1905, Men’s Magazine section, p.5.

[147]“Society, Meetings & Entertainments: Swedish Art Exhibit Ends,” Chicago Tribune, 3/18/1912, p.12.

[148]His Venice, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 2/22/1927, p.2. It was also illustrated in “Art And Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 2/27/1927, p.H9.

[149]His Canal in Venice, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/20/1928, p.3.

[150]This third annual exhibit reportedly consisted of works from the Society of American Artists and after the sale of several works a few Chicagoan’s paintings were added to round out the exhibition. “At The Art Institute,” Daily Inter Ocean, 6/10/1890, p.3.

[151]In early 1913 the Friends of American Art had purchased his painting June Morning, Lake Orta. Harriet Monroe, “Chicago Artists Gradually but Surely Advancing,” Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1913, p.B5. It illustrated in the catalogue of the American Annual show.

[152]Eleanor Jewett, “Annual American Exhibit Is Opened at the Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 11/2/1924: “Oliver Dennett Grover shows, for him, an unusual type of picture. He calls it ‘Portrait,’ and it is the portrait of a lady, an exquisite canvas of gracious womanhood, costumed in a filmy snow tulle dress with earrings of unmatched beauty in her ears. It is one of the most beautifully painted pictures in the entire exhibit.”

[153]His last American exhibition at the Art Institute before his death he exhibited a portrait of his wife which was thoroughly reviewed by Len M. McCauley, “American Exhibition Records Year’s Work,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 11/2/1926, p.5.

[154]His painting Isola Bella, Lake Como, was lent for the exhibition by John V. Farwell. The Friends of American Art. Loan Exhibition of Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1/8/1914), catalog entry #23.

[155]They were otherwise known at the “Great Nine.” Anne Ellis, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 5/13/1915, p.15.

[156]“About Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/4/1895, p.7.

[157]Louise James Bargelt, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 12/16/1917, p.C8.

[158]He exhibited a sculpture piece “The Source” at this exhibition. This was called by the press his “debut” as a sculptor. Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/9/1901, p.8.

[159]His mural detail Zoology, was illustrated in Arthur Anderson Merritt, “Work Of The Chicago Artists,” Brush and Pencil, Vol. 11, No. 6, March 1903, p.458.

[160]His Sails, was illustrated in the catalogue and J. W. Moran, “Works Of Chicago Artists - At Art Institute,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 20, March 1909, p.160.

[161]His Portrait Study, was illustrated in Evelyn Marie Stuart, “Chicago Artists’ Twenty-second Annual Exhibition,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 36, March 1918, p.7.

[162]“Society and Entertainments,” Chicago Tribune, 3/19/1917, p.15.

[163]“Exhibition by Chicago Portrait Painters, Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 36, November 1918, pp. 34-39. This show was very important as only Chicago’s “best” portrait artists, thirteen in all, were invited.

[164]Lena M. McCauley, “Art,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/25/1905, p.5. He exhibited five paintings of Venetian scenes.

[165]He exhibited two of the murals for the Blackstone Library in Branford, Connecticut.

[166]He exhibited mural designs for the Blackstone Library in Chicago. Chicago Evening Post, 3/29/1902, in AIC Scrapbooks.

[167]Mr. Grover’s Haidee is a commendable study in sumptuous decorative combinations.” “The Artists’ Society,” Chicago Tribune, 2/17/1889, p.3.

[168]His The Finishing Touch, now owned by the Sheldon Swope Museum, was illustrated in “Chicago’s Fine Arts,” Chicago Daily News, Supplement, 4/3/1890, p.3.

[169]“About Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/22/1895, p.7.

[170]Harriet Monroe, “Lawton Parker’s Paintings On Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 7/16/1911, p.A9.

[171]“Art Gallery To Travel,” Chicago Tribune, 1/13/1906, p.3.

[172]Eleanor Jewett, “Nature Studies Shown by Wild Flower Society,” Chicago Tribune, 1/11/1920, p.F5.

[173]“The Chicago Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 10/24/1887, p.4.

[174]“Art Association Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 2/23/1888, p.1.

[175]“American Masters in Knoedler’s Show,” American Art News, Vol.XX, No.38, 7/15/1922, p.2.

[176]“Art,” Sunday Chicago Tribune, 5/22/1898, p.34; Isabel McDougall, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/28/1898, p.10.

[177]“Many Unusual Items in Roche Collection,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 5/1/1928, p.3.

[178]Op. cit., National Cyclopædia Of American Biography, p.481. He exhibited Portrait of a Lady.

[179]In the exhibit his painting of Chicago architect Solon Beman was shown.

[180]A. T. Andreas, p.422 and op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 6/4/1890, p.5. One of the paintings was hung “on the line,” a place of honor.

[181] James William Pattison, “Chicago Artists’ Exhibit,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 5/27/1900, p.19. His work was not reviewed in the article.

[182]“Notes on Current Art,” Chicago Tribune, 6/15/1890, p.35.

[183]Edward G. Holden, “In The Field Of Art: Western Artists’ Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 1/3/1904, Part 4, p.30.

[184]“A series of three productions from the brush of Oliver Dennett Grover are reminiscent of picturesque Venice, Venice teeming with her metropolitan throngs, instinct with a new life yet pathetic in her historic significance. Flooded with a warmth of Venetian sunlight, which bathes the broad flight of steps forming its central mass of colour, Mending the Nets, Chioggia, testifies to such structural consideration, such a suavity of treatment, that it well merits the attention which it is receiving. “The Society of Western Artists,” International Studio, Vol. 27, November 1905, p.CIII.

[185]He showed the 1893 World’s Fair and Yerkes Prize winning painting Thy Will Be Done. “Selects Art Work For Nashville,” Chicago Tribune, 4/1/1897, p.2.

[186]“Their First Reception,” Chicago Tribune, 1/18/1885, in this article it said he was exhibiting his painting of Mr. J. W. Means which was exhibited in the Salon Société des Artistes Français with a portrait of Mrs. Means who studied with Grover in Paris in 1884. In “Art And Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 1/25/1885, it was told his painting “Les Amis” was given the place of honor at the Art Institute of Chicago where this inaugural show hung.

[187]His painting They Will Be Done, was illustrated in “Selected By A Jury,” Chicago Tribune, 3/13/1893, p.3.

[188]“Chicago,” The Sketch Book, Vol. III, No. 5, January 1904, p.144. Edward G. Holden, “Art: The ‘Fairy City’,” Chicago Tribune, 1/10/1904, Part 5, p.30. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/9/1904, p.7.

[189]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/17/1904, p11.

[190]The exhibition was recent paintings of Italian landscape, 1/25/1909 to 2/3/1909.

[191]Harriet Monroe, “Fine Work by American Artists On Exhibition in Local Galleries,” Chicago Tribune, 3/6/1910, p.B7.

[192]Harriet Monroe, “Chicago Afforded Opportunity to Lead in Outdoor Sculpture,” Chicago Tribune, 11/26/1911, p.B5.

[193]“Art Institute Exhibit Magnet For Students,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/13/1912, p.3. Op. cit., Monroe, Chicago Tribune, 12/13/1912, p.14.

[194]Harriet Monroe, “Art Institute Portrait Charms Rembrandt Authority,” Chicago Tribune, 1/4/1914, p.F6.

[195]He exhibited with his brother-in-law Louis Rolshoven. Louise James Bargelt, “Art: Exhibitions at the Galleries this week,” Chicago Tribune, 11/12/1916, p.G6.

[196]Lena M. McCauley, “New Jury Ideals At Art Institute,” in “News Of The Art World,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/6/1917, p.11.

[197]Mention was made in “Exhibitions at the galleries,” Chicago Tribune, 1/19/1919, p.D2.

[198]“Mr. Grover’s Paintings,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 12/23/1919, p.9. Eleanor Jewett, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 12/21/1919, p.F6.

[199]His painting Pierce Rock, was featured in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 5/10/1921, p.15. A brief review appeared in “The Art Dealers,” op. cit., 5/17/1921, p.11.

[200]“Gossip by the Way,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 1/25/1921, p.9. The article quotes the New York Times as naming Grover as the successor to Frank Duveneck.

[201]Arietta Wimer Towne, “Art Notes of the Two Villages,” The Oak Parker, 11/21/1924.

[202]“Grover Shows Fine Portrait in Chicago,” Rockford Gazette, 10/31/1924 in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 48, see also: “Mr. Grover in Rockford,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 11/4/1924, p.6.

[203]Dunbar personally owned the painting Chioggia Fishing Boats, Dawn, illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/1/1927, p.4.

[204]The show is extensively reviewed by Lena M. McCauley, “Gen. Pershing Views Paintings by Grover,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/27/1927, pp.1, 12. His self portrait appeared in the 1/3/1928 issue, p.6. It is further reviewed by Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists: Pictures by Grover,” Chicago Tribune, 1/8/1928, p.G5. His portrait of his wife appeared in “In Current Exhibit,” Chicago Herald-Examiner, 1/8/1928, in AIC Scrapbooks, vol. 54, p.114.

[205]C. J. Bulliet, “Grover, Rodin Join McBey in Current Exhibit at Knoedler’s,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/3/1929, p.7. His The Grand Canal, Venice was illustrated and Avalanche Lake, was illustrated in the 12/10/1929 issue, p.5. Eleanor Jewett, “Memorial Exhibit of O. D. Grover’s Art at Knoedler Galleries,” Chicago Tribune, 11/30/1929, p.19. Frances Farmer, “3 Chicagoans In Art Exhibit,” Chicago American, 11/23/1929, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 57, out of date sequence, n.p.

[206]Part of the Chicago Public Schools collection, Venice is now unlocated. “Artists Give Up $2,500 For City,” Chicago Herald, 12/18/1914, p.18. The work was given another title Street Scene Near Rialto Venice, and illustrated in Anita De Campi, “Thirteen Chicagoans Win in Municipal Art Contest,” Chicago Tribune, 12/18/1914, p.17.

[207]In 1999 the Chicago Woman’s club was disbanded and their collection given to Roosevelt University, Chicago. This painting was among those given.

[208]“Art and Artists,” Inter Ocean, Vol. XIX, No. 48, 5/11/1890, p.12.

[209]“Random Notes About Art and Artists,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/18/1928, p.5. After his death, his wife left their studio at 9 East Ontario for their residence at the corner of Michigan and Ontario. During the summer, she was at Eagle’s Nest Camp in Oregon, Illinois.

[210]“Where Art Thrives,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1/28/1894, p.25.

[211]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 7/7/1900, p.4.

[212]“Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/29/1900, p.8.

[213]C. J. Bulliet, “Conservatives Active in Chicago,” New York Times, 4/24/1932, in AIC Scrapbooks, vol.60, p.8.