Emile Grumieaux
1897-1954
Emile Jaques Grumieaux was a Chicago based, Belgium born painter and illustrator. Having studied in various European cities as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, Grumieaux’s work blended formal tenets of European Modernism with distinctly American subject matter. His artistic output focused largely on depictions of the American pastoral, producing many works of rural Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Grumieaux believed strongly in an idea of artistic progress based on the reduction of the inessential, and thought it important to develop a theory of art evolved from the firsthand experience of painting.
During his lifetime Grumieaux was recognized as one of the most prominent landscape painters in Chicago, and exhibited frequently in regional juried exhibitions. In addition, Grumieaux exhibited nationally in venues including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Kansas City Art Institute. His work garnered him frequent write ups in Chicago based art periodicals, as well as awards from the Chicago Society of Artists, and the Illinois State Museum in Springfield. Besides the number of prominent private collections within which he is included such as the M. Christine Schwartz Collection, Grumieaux’s work is featured in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University.
