Emile Albert Gruppe (1896 - 1978)

The name Gruppe is eternally linked with the world of art. As a whole the family has produced as many if not more successful artists than any other one surname. The family does not appear to have a noted history of rivalry or competition amongst the members involved in the field. However, that recognition in the art realm seems tethered on either critical acclaim or financial success or both, it begs us to ask the question ‘who was the most successful Gruppe artisan’? History has thus far given the nod to Emile Albert Gruppe.

Born in 1896 in Rochester, NY, Emile and his siblings were taken under the wing of their father Charles Gruppe. Charles was already a successful painter of landscapes, seascapes and genre works when his children began to arrive. Under his father’s tutelage Emile fell in love with painting and settled on art as a career before the age of twenty. He would study at the Carnegie Art School, Art Students League and under accomplished painters of Provincetown, Massachusetts and Europe. His time spent in Provincetown led Emile to establishing his permanent studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Keeping the family connection alive Emile shared studio space with his brother Karl Heinrich Gruppe, who would become a renowned sculptor. Heavily influenced by the works of Monet, Gruppe developed an impressionist style. He is most noted for his ability to tell the viewer the time of day or season not through color, but rather through width of brushstrokes and density of paint. Popular among his works are the harbor scenes with docked sailing vessels and his village scenes of nearby Rockport. Gruppe was not limited to these uses of canvas as he showed equal skill in capturing the snow filled woodlands of Vermont and the palm tree littered beaches of Florida that he frequented.

In 1942 Emile, with the help of some of the artists he had studied under, established the Gruppe Summer School in Gloucester. His passion for art resonated in his teaching leading Emile to be equally recognized for his accomplishments in both painting and instruction. One of Gruppe’s finest students was his son Robert Charles Gruppe who is still painting today after studying under Emile for twenty years. Emile’s nephew Charles C. Gruppe is also still currently producing paintings with noted success.

Emile Gruppe lived to be 82 years old, painting and teaching right up to the end. The quantity of paintings he left behind is enormous numbering in the thousands. That amount, however, is certainly surpassed by the number of ‘impressions’ he made upon aspiring artists, collectors and fans of art the world over.

Frederick Harer (1879-1946) and Ben Badura (1896-1986)

This is the story of two artists who found their greatest success not from oils, watercolors, or even ink. These two men literally carved out their niche in the artist’s landscape by pushing the boundaries of frame making. Oddly enough their success and influence as frame makers came almost reluctantly and by accident.

Frederick Harer was born in 1879, in Blossburg, Pennsylvania. Harer’s father was a successful cabinet maker and taught Frederick the secrets of the trade. Harer was a free spirit and traveled extensively in the British West Indies and Spain. Not one to stay in hotels or resort areas, Harer would use native guides and travel to remote untapped areas, immersing himself in the local cultures. He used the arts and crafts and local styles from his travels as his inspiration and main influence.
Harer returned to Pennsylvania to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under famous instructors William Merritt Chase and Thomas Anshutz. It was at the Academy that Harer stumbled upon what would become the bulk of his life’s work. Using his father’s wood working tools Harer had taken to making original frames and framing his own paintings and the other artists at the academy took notice. Soon Harer was supporting himself entirely on frame making. Beyond his father’s tools he created specialized carving equipment and integrated them into his hand carved frames. His gilding was meticulous and of the highest quality, the product of classic training and ‘secret’ techniques he developed. His pride in his work translated in the simple etched signature he would carve into the back of each frame, treating them as works of art.

Harer’s work became extremely popular not only with Bucks County painters, but also with painters in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Connecticut. Eventually the demand was too much for one man to handle and so Harer took on an apprentice named Bernard Badura. Eventually known as Ben, Bernard Badura was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1896. Badura loved to paint and wanted to be an artist very early on in his life. After returning from WWI he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia and was a student of Daniel Garber. Badura had no initial interest in frame making, but accepted the apprenticeship under Harer to make ends meet. He demonstrated considerable skill at carving and gilding, surprising some of the artists when they saw ‘Badura’ etched on the back of their frame and not ‘Harer’.

In 1946 Frederick Harer died, leaving his sacred tools and sketchbooks to Badura. He entrusted them to Ben as he was the only frame maker worthy of these treasured items. For the next forty years Badura continued in the Harer tradition and also introduced his own designs that became wildly popular amongst the artists who commissioned the frames. Badura, whose heart truly lied in oil and canvas, never took on more commissions than he needed to pay his bills, allowing himself as much time as possible to paint. He never deviated from his original price of $8 per foot even as inflation took hold and the artists he worked for begged him to increase his price.

Welcome Antan Tutra

The Gilt Complex proudly welcomes Antan Tutra to our family of currently producing, local artists. Albanian born, Tutra has been classically trained and has provided us with a stunning collection of South Jersey impressionist works. Using plain air settings combined with imagination Tutra is able to express emotion through his palette. Please visit our website or the gallery to see these tremendous works of fine art.

Guy Carleton Wiggins (1883-1962)

The story of Guy Carleton Wiggins serves as a reminder that although pedigree is not a guarantee for success it certainly counts for something. As the middle generation of three generations of successful artists, Guy Carleton Wiggins achieved the most acclaim. His father, John Carleton Wiggins (or simply Carleton Wiggins) was an accomplished landscape artist. Carleton Wiggins had studied under George Inness, probably the most famous American landscape artist of the 19th century. After the birth of Guy, Carleton moved his family to England. While in England Guy would receive his grammar schooling and the beginnings of his formal art training from his father. Although abroad, and only eight years old, Guy Wiggins' received his first public praise from a group of New York critics. Receiving enormous recognition at early stages of his life would become a trend for Wiggins.

After returning to the United States, Guy Wiggins studied architecture at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and then studied painting at the National Academy of Design. As his father had, Guy studied under some of the finest art instructors of the day; in this case William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. Using his knowledge of architecture and adopting his interest in Impressionism Wiggins painted "Metropolitan Tower". The painting was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1912 and by all accounts it made him the youngest artist to have a painting entered into the museum's permanent collection.

Wiggins career would be defined by his Impressionist style, using color as illumination. He spent time going back and forth from his home in Old Lyme, Connecticut and his studio in New York City. In Connecticut he would paint the landscapes, capturing the open fields and rolling hills in spring and summer. Oddly enough his greatest financial success was due to one such summer landscape...in a roundabout way. During a snowstorm in New York, Wiggins was attempting to paint a summer landscape and became frustrated. While looking out his window Wiggins became inspired by the snowfall's effect on the city's scenery. He began painting a series of winter cityscapes and they became the most popular and desirable from his entire body of work.

To name all of the awards Guy Carleton Wiggins received would take too long to write and would be cumbersome to read. We will just say that he won about as many as were available to win as well as having his works displayed in almost every major museum and collection, including two pieces in the White House. He stayed true to the Impressionist style, even after the movement was considered over. The Gilt Complex is fortunate enough to have wonderful paintings from both John Carleton Wiggins and Guy A. Wiggins (Guy Carleton's son) in our possession and available for sale. Some day soon we hope to also have a master work Guy Carleton Wiggins to fuse the generations.

William Trost Richards (1833-1905)

Born in Philadelphia, William Trost Richards did not get off to the audacious start one might associate with a successful artist of the 19th century. It is said he enjoyed drawing from a very early age, but all childhood fancies were put on hold when Richards' father died in 1847. At the tender age of fourteen Richards dropped out of high school and took a job designing metal fixtures to support his family. This act of responsibility beyond his years was a sign of the ambition and determination Richards would use to his benefit in the coming years.
At 17 years old, while still working in metal fixtures, Richards began to study privately. along with eventual contemporary William Stanley Haseltine, under the famed German landscape artist Paul Weber. It could not have been a better time as he spent the next few years sketching the Hudson River Valley with artists such as Frederic Edwin Church, John Kensett and Jasper Cropsey; an all-star team of artisans by today's standards. Richards was particularly influenced by Church and Kensett. Along with fellow student William Haseltine, Richards followed in the footsteps of most great artisans and made the trip to study in Europe. Upon returning he eventually settled in Newport, Rhode Island. He became famous for his paintings of land and sea, particularly for his seascapes of the eastern coastline. As a gallery in southern New Jersey we take great pride in the fact that some of Richards' finest seascapes were painted of the New Jersey coastlines of Atlantic City and Cape May.
Richards style can be summed up in one word: meticulous. As a member of the Society of Truth in Art, Richards painted with an almost painful amount of attention to detail. His seascapes are a prime example, leaving the viewer with no doubt as to the expanse of the shoreline, the dampness of the sand, and the affects of the weather on wave conditions and debris left by storms and tides.

Severin Roesen (c.1815 - 1872)

We know a great deal about the magnificent brush work, attention to detail and refined palette of Severin Roesen. Oddly enough, the details of his life that should be the easiest to obtain are what we know the least about. What is not in question, however, is his enormous talent and the mark he left on the art world.

Roesen's birth is the first of those small mysteries in that he was either born in 1815 or 1816 in Cologne, Germany. It is assumed that he studied porcelain and enamel painting in the great German tradition. To compliment his skill, Roesen was also a man of impeccable timing. A successful German art exhibition in New York in 1847 had created a great demand for the kind of fine art Roesen was accustomed to producing. Settling in New York less than a year after the exhibition, Roesen had no trouble creating a comfortable living for his family. A decade later Roesen's sense of timing once again shone through as he began to paint in and eventually moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The town had experienced a tremendous economic boost, as wealth was created due to a very successful logging industry. The demand for Roesen's works and skill as an instructor combined with the expendable monies of the people in the area once again ensured a very comfortable living for his family. Roesen cemented his financial success with the use of botanical subjects and painting on oval stretched canvas, the popular choice of the time.

Strange as it is that we do not know the exact year of Roesen's birth, it is even more odd what happened surrounding his death. We don't know when he died because in 1872 he seemingly vanished into thin air. What he left behind is a body of works of the highest quality. The importance of Roesen's contributions to the art of still life painting, especially as it pertains to the use of floral subjects are unquestioned. The desire for his work is just as high today as it was in the 19th century, although the price jumped since then. In 2004 one of his pieces sold at auction for over 1.5 million dollars!

Walter Emerson Baum (1884-1956)

Walter Emerson Baum was born in September of 1884 to Mary Ellen and Harvey Baum of Sellersville, Pennsylvania. The town of Sellersville is located in Bucks County, making Baum the only noted "Bucks County Impressionist" to actually lay claim to that area as his place of birth. His formal art training began when he studied Fraktur under Isaac Hilker. Fraktur are special documents such as birth or wedding certificates decorated with ink and watercolor. Baum's interest and involvement in Fraktur making acted as an early sign of a commitment to his community and his German American heritage that would hold firm the remainder of his life.
In 1904 he began to study under William B.T. Trego, as his apprentice. A year later he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he would study under the famed instructors Thomas Anshutz and Daniel Garber. It was Anshutz that had shifted the Academy's focus away from staunch realism and allowed for more exploration in style. Baum's studies and influences forged his artistic beliefs and bold impressionist style. Working en plein air, Baum wasted little time combining large amounts of pigment with seemingly larger brush strokes. His works depicting natural settings, especially those in winter, would prove over time to be of great impact on the arts.
In his lifetime Baum was honored with over thirty major awards, including the Jennie Sesnan Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy and the Medal of Honor from the National Arts Club. Also during his lifetime Baum's works were featured in over one hundred and fifty museum exhibitions. His personal accomplishments culminated with the establishments of both the Baum School of Art and the Allentown Art Museum. Baum's endearing legacy is that a love of art will enhance the life of anyone willing to pursue it. To view more of Walter Baum's impressive works please click on his name in the Links section.