Granville Richard Seymour Redmond (March 9, 1871 – May 24, 1935) was an American

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

and exponent of Tonalism and California

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. He was also an occasional actor for his friend Charlie Chaplin. CaliforniaPoppies andOaks

Early years

Redmond was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, on March 9, 1871, to a hearing family. He contracted scarlet fever at around 2½ to the age of 3; when he recovered, he was found to be

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

. This may have prompted his family's decision to move from the East Coast to San Jose, California: the possibility for his education at the Berkeley School for the Deaf.

Study

Granville Redmond - Flowers Under the Oaks

Granville attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley from 1879 to 1890 where his artistic talents were recognized and encouraged. There his teacher Theophilus d'Estrella taught him

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, drawing and pantomime. When he graduated from CSD, Redmond enrolled at another CSD: the California School of Design in San Francisco, where he worked for three years with teachers such as

Arthur Frank Mathews Arthur F. Mathews (October 1, 1860 – February 19, 1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a s ...

and

Amédée Joullin Amédée Joullin (3 June 1862, in San Francisco – 3 February 1917, in San Francisco) was a French American painter whose work centered on the landscapes of California and on Native Americans. Biography He was born in San Francisco to French ...

. He famously won the W. E. Brown Medal of Excellence. He associated with many other artists, including

Gottardo Piazzoni Gottardo Fidele Piazzoni (1872–1945) was a Swiss-born American landscape painter, muralist and sculptor of Italian heritage, a key member of the school of Northern California artists in the early 1900s. Life and career Born in Intragna, Switz ...

and Giuseppe Cadenasso. Piazzoni learned American Sign Language, and he and Redmond became lifelong friends. They lived together in Parkfield and

Tiburon, California Tiburon (; es, Tiburón, ) is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. It shares a ZIP code with the smaller incorporated city of Belvedere (for ...

. In 1893 Redmond won a scholarship from the California School of the Deaf which made it possible for him to study in Paris at the Académie Julian under teachers

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexa ...

and

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (also known as Benjamin-Constant), born Jean-Joseph Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits. Biography Benjamin-Constant was bor ...

. He roomed with the sculptor Douglas Tilden, another graduate of the California School for the Deaf. "Tilden was a tremendous help to Redmond, teaching him French and how to get around in Paris; they became best friends for the rest of their lives." In 1895, Redmond's painting ''Matin d'Hiver'' was accepted for the Paris Salon.

Back in California

In 1898, he returned to California and settled in Los Angeles. He was married in 1899 to Carrie Ann Jean, a former student of the Illinois School for the Deaf. Together they had three children.

Working with Chaplin

While living in Los Angeles, he became friends with

Charles Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consid ...

, who admired the natural expressiveness of a deaf person using American Sign Language. Chaplin asked Redmond to help him develop the techniques Chaplin later used in his silent films. Chaplin, impressed with Redmond's skill, gave Redmond a studio on the movie lot, collected his paintings, and sponsored him in silent acting roles, including the sculptor in City Lights. Chaplin told a writer for '' The Silent Worker'' of a Redmond painting, "I could look at it for hours. It means so many things" and Chaplin's famous ''The Dance of the Oceana Rolls'' was Redmond-inspired. During this time Redmond did not neglect his painting. Through Chaplin he met Los Angeles neighbor artists Elmer Wachtel and Norman St. Clair. They showed works at the Spring Exhibition held in San Francisco in 1904. By 1905 Redmond was receiving considerable recognition as a leading landscape painter and bold colorist. He died on May 24, 1935, in Los Angeles.

Selected paintings

Granville Redmond - A Field of California Poppies.jpg, A Field of California Poppies Granville Redmond Malibu Coast Spring.jpg, Malibu Coast Spring Granville Redmond - Coastal storm.jpg, Coastal Storm

Filmography

Collections

* Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. *

California School for the Deaf, Fremont The California School for the Deaf is a school for deaf children in Fremont, California. The school educates deaf children from all over Northern California. Its campus in Fremont is adjacent to the campus of the California School for the Blind ...

. *

Cantor Arts Center The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, formerly the Stanford University Museum of Art, and commonly known as the Cantor Arts Center, is an art museum on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. ...

, Stanford. *

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

, Sacramento. *

De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the California Pala ...

, San Francisco.
Granville Redmond Fine Art
Los Angeles. *

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Ma ...

, San Marino, California. *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

.
K. Nathan Gallery
La Jolla, California. *

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

. *

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...

Awards

* Gold Medal, W. E. Brown Award, California School of Design, 1892. * Medal, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904. * Silver Medal, Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Granville Redmond
at AskART

at Artcyclopedia

at California Plein Air Paintings

at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Redmond, Granville 1871 births 1935 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Tonalism American Impressionist painters American landscape painters Deaf artists Painters from California Académie Julian alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni Deaf people from the United States 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists