(2) Oliver Dennett Grover (1861 – 1927) Exceptional Venice Italy paintings. Oil on canvas. Housed in possibly Newcomb Macklin frames. With original inscription attached verso. This pair of paintings is reminiscent of the style of Joseph Antoine Bouvard, who was infamous for his Venice Italy paintings. Each signed lower right.
Grover (1861-1927) was the son of the lawyer Alonzo Jackson Grover, known for his stand against slavery and his support of an “underground railway” to transport fugitive slaves to Canada. Oliver traveled to Munich after studying four years at the University of Chicago. During the 1879-80 school year he enrolled in Munich’s Royal Academy and studied with Frank Duveneck. Already in 1880, he was exhibiting at Munich’s International Exposition. Grover followed Duveneck to Venice and Florence, then studied further in Paris between 1883 and 1885 under Boulanger and Lefebvre. Back in Chicago in 1885, Grover opened a studio and founded the Western Art Association. He was on the faculty of the Chicago Art Academy in 1887, where he remained for five years. During the World’s Columbian Exposition, Grover exhibited Thy Will Be Done and he executed Harem Scene in the Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, Indiana in 1899, a contribution to Orientalist genre. The painter participated in the St. Louis Universal Exposition (showing three Venetian sketches), as well as annuals at the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Academy of Design. He contributed murals for the Blackstone Memorial Library in Chicago in 1903. Grover’s Ponte Vecchio, Florence and Rocky Shore: Lake Garda were on display at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The artist was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1913. Grover had a space in the Tree Studio Building between 1914 and 1922. During the final decade of his life, Grover became an initial board member of the Association of Arts and Industries, which would become “a major force in Chicago design during the 1920s and 1930s.” (Prince, 1990, p. 124). The Art Institute of Chicago organized a memorial exhibition for Grover in 1928.
Sight Sizes: 13 x 9.5 in.
Overall Framed Sizes: 17 x 13.5 in.