Daniel Charles Grose

Daniel Charles Grose (1832 – 1900) was a prolific Canadian-American painter of the Hudson River School who was active between 1864 and 1900. Primarily known for his pastoral landscapes, on occasion he also created marine views. Somewhat at variance from these were his scenes of India, perhaps the most coveted during his lifetime. An inveterate traveller, he painted scenes across eastern Canada and throughout the United States, in addition to countries abroad.

Biography Daniel Charles Grose was born in 1832 in Whitby, England. He was one of a half-dozen children born to Daniel Henderson and Sarah Rachel Grose.

The Grose family were actors and performers who travelled throughout the north of England for most of the 1830s and 1840s. Truly a family affair, a London paper in 1843 described a theatre under the management of Mr [Daniel Henderson] Grose as appearing to "have a gross of little Groses, who constitute his company."

After serving in the Merchant Navy in the early 1850s, Grose married his first wife, Louisa Askew, on June 8, 1856, at Chatham, Kent, England. At the start of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Grose was employed as a professor in a military staff college. As a lieutenant in the Royal East India Engineer Corps, he volunteered for active duty and served until the rebellion was suppressed.

He was living with his in-laws in England in 1861 but by 1865 he and his wife had moved to Toronto, Province of Canada where he seems to have described himself for the first time as an artist. By 1868, Grose and Louisa had moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he lived extensively throughout the rest of his life. Louisa died in either 1875 or 1876. This second marriage was not a happy one and after a couple of years they separated. Mary returned to her family in New Brunswick, but soon went back to New York where she died in 1881 of "exhaustion due to acute mania."

On May 25, 1881, in Washington, D.C., Grose married Harriet Estella Smith (1863–1914), also an artist. Between 1881 and 1884 Grose and Harriet took a trip around the world. They moved back to Brooklyn but continued travelling nearly until his death, leaving New York again in 1895 and not returning from Australia until 1898. Grose died in Alexandria, Virginia, at his mother-in-law's house (Mrs. H Dwight Smith) on February 24, 1900. His funeral was held the next day in Washington at his former residence. His wife Harriet died in Brooklyn, New York on October 6, 1914.

Painting career

Grose studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. The earliest known Grose works are dated 1864 and 1865 and consist of a series of landscapes in the province of Quebec. These have been described as primitive oil paintings in the Romantic style.

He sketched and painted in the northeastern United States, including Maine, the Hudson River Valley, The White Mountains NH, and Connecticut. He also continued to work in adjacent Canadian provinces. Grose was active as a painter in the Rocky Mountains area from the 1860s to the 1880s. Other American locations included Florida and the Grand Canyon. Grose was evidently successful as most of his canvases were sold before he completed them.

Collections Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

Selected works Dated

1864: River Landscape - oil on canvas 9" x 12" - signed - dated 1865: Le Lac Beauport – oil on canvas – signed – dated Quebec from Charlesbourg – oil on canvas – signed – dated Afternoon by the Falls – oil on canvas – signed – dated River Landscape 1 – oil on canvas – signed – dated River Landscape 2 – oil on canvas – signed – dated Lac de Deux Montages – oil on canvas – signed – dated – (Montreal) Quebec Rapids – oil on canvas – signed – dated Duck Shooting from a Boat – oil on canvas – signed – dated – (Montreal) Paysage dans les Laurentides – oil on canvas – signed – dated Paysage dans les Laurentides– oil on canvas – signed – dated La Pêche à la nigogue – oil on canvas – signed – dated 1867: Mill Dam - oil on canvas – signed – dated – (Philadelphia) 1870: Moghul Palace in a Landscape - oil on canvas – signed – dated 1874: Autumnal Sunset Over a Mill - oil on canvas – signed – dated Paysage des environs de Québec (?) – oil on canvas – signed – dated 1875: Trading on the Plains - oil on canvas – signed 1876: Landscape with Fields and Distant Hills - oil on canvas – signed – dated 1877: Mt. Katahdin – oil on canvas – signed - dated 1886: La Mauvaise Rivière, Saint-Raymond de Portneuf – oil on canvas – signed – dated La Rivière Sainte-Anne, Saint-Raymond de Portneuf – oil on canvas – signed – dated 1887: Autumn, Hudson River Valley - oil on canvas – signed – dated The Old City of Delhi - oil on canvas – signed – dated Winter Sleigh Ride - oil on canvas – signed – dated 1895: River Landscape with Village - oil on canvas – signed – dated

Undated Autumn in the Whites, NH Lake Scene with Waterfall & Distant Mountains Fisherman in a Landscape River Scene Lakeside Landscape Waterfall in the West A Romantic View of Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley California View of North Conway, New Hampshire Waterfall River Landscape with Village River Landscape A View In The White Mountains A View In Maryland Skating Scene Spring on the Wissahickon Autumn on the Wissahickon

Gallery