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About Edmund Greacen
The artist's father, Thomas Edmund Greacen, arrived in New York from Scotland in 1868 and became active in the shoe business. Soon he married Isabella Wiggins, "the daughter of a wealthy New York family; applied her capital and his own shrewd judgment to the wholesale shoe trade, and prospered." The family holdings expanded: "There was a brownstone at 6 West 50th Street. . . there was a farm in Sullivan County where the four children spent their summers" (Knudsen, 1972, p. 5). One of these children, the second of three sons, Edmund W. Greacen, the future painter, was born in 1876, the year of the great *Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Growing up in a relatively affluent household, Edmund first attended the Halsey School and then continued his education at New York University, where his curriculum included art. However, it seems that other activities such as banjo playing, track competition, and the Zeta Psi fraternity took precedence over art studies. At least his contemporary drawings reflected a rather carefree life since one sketchbook was "full of Gibson [type] girls and other echoes of the romantic illustrations of the period" (Knudsen, 1972, p. 6). More accomplished drawing appears in a sketchbook dating from the summer of 1895 when young Greacen was on a trip to Ireland. Two years later he graduated from New York University with a B.A. degree. Seeking to augment his pictorial skills, in November 1897 he enrolled in the sketch class of the *Art Students League, but this lasted only about a month. Right at that time, ASL professors *John Henry Twachtman, *Childe Hassam, and others organized *the Ten (American Painters), an elitist group, which has been referred to as "a kind of academy of American Impressionism" (Richardson, 1956, p. 306).
In the early spring of 1901, we find him in *Kenyon Cox's evening life class. Greacen left the ASL to attend the *Chase School. The liberal ways of *William Merritt Chase included painting en *plein air and drawing figurative subjects from life on the canvas with a fully loaded brush. These methods were in direct conflict with precepts of his successor at the League, Kenyon Cox, an avowed traditionalist whose teaching was based on the French academic method of disciplined draftsmanship. Greacen was to remain with Chase for several years, also studying under other instructors such as *Robert Henri, *Luis Mora, and *Frank V. Dumond. This training brought Greacen into contact with a wide variety of artistic influences, one of which was the anti-impressionistic stance of Robert Henri, whose band of artistic rebels would one day be labeled the *Ash Can School. However, Greacen followed the more conservative banner of Chase. Greacen used mostly a broadly brushed application of medium-range pigment to achieve his decorative compositions. Perhaps hoping to achieve diversity, he enrolled for a third time in the Art Students League for the school year of 1902-03, augmenting his skills as an illustrator under Fred Yoker and *Walter A. Clark. Under *Irving Wiles, Greacen also studied portraiture and increased his ability to draw directly with the brush in a manner roughly similar to that taught by Chase. Encouraged by others, Greacen submitted his first work to the NAD annual in 1903.
Although impressionism was already "old-fashioned" in Paris, a large group of American expatriates clung to the movement, especially in *Giverny where they worked near *Claude Monet. Greacen settled with his family in a small house there in 1907. In this milieu, he had the opportunity of meeting *Richard E. Miller, *Frederick Frieseke, *Karl Anderson, and other members of the last (third) generation of American impressionists who would subsequently bring the movement to its conclusion. The Greacens also became good friends with Monet's son-in-law, *Theodore Earl Butler, and his wife Marthe Hoschedé Butler. Greacen met Monet only once, but the memory was a lasting one. Years later he described Monet as a "handsome, rugged, grey-bearded man with a keen blue eye, constantly smoking cigarettes that seemed about to disappear in his great beard and set it in flames" (Knudsen, 1972, p. 8). Monet's influence on Greacen is particularly evident in a canvas entitled Effet de neige exhibited in the 1907 Paris Salon. This superb impressionistic landscape shows a stream in winter. The work is subjectively expressive through its shimmering surface quality, which results from the spontaneous brushwork, and the *high-keyed palette. Gerdts (1993, p. 187) rightly points out, however, that Greacen's tones are more muted and his brushwork softer than that of his Giverny colleagues; one sees a certain influence of Theodore Butler in this snow scene. In 1907, however, Greacen also painted The River Epte, an even more dazzling canvas with vibrant, broken brushwork and rich, jewel-like color. With funds from America, Greacen was able to devote himself to his art and live pleasantly in Giverny where Americans dominated the social scene. His busy spring exhibition schedule was interrupted in 1908 by the birth of a second child, a daughter named Nan, who would become a National Academician one day.
After another year in Giverny, Greacen and his family returned to New York. Although the Greacens lived in the city and became active in the art community, they also visited *Old Lyme, Connecticut, where many artists resided permanently and others spent their summers. Numerous American impressionists worked in both Giverny and Old Lyme, so that when Greacen first ventured there in 1910, he found certain parallels between the places and a whole new group of friends. Here he met Hassam, *William Chadwick, and many others who painted in a manner similar to his. In the ensuing months New York still buzzed from the excitement of the *Exhibition of Independent Artists, and it was in 1911 that Greacen was given a one-man show at the Folsom Galleries. This was the first year the artist submitted work to the annual at the City Art Museum of St. Louis. In the following years, his works were exhibited regularly in the annuals of the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Academy. He balanced work with a busy social schedule, as well as physical exercise, playing tennis and squash. In 1913 when the revolutionary *Armory Show took New York by storm, the ever-traditional Greacen became a member of the *National Arts Club. At that time his *subject matter was still varied, and frequently his wife figured in his compositions.
Various New York Galleries handled Greacen's work during this period, including Ainslie, Knoedler, Reinhardt, and Macbeth. Greacen and his friend *Rae S. Bredin organized the Manhattan School of Art at 333 Fourth Avenue and offered courses in illustration and painting. Because of the war, it remained opened for less than one year. Greacen must have felt some personal redemption in having missed the Spanish-American War when he donated his services to the armed forces in World War I by decorating barracks and canteens for French soldiers. He went to the department of Vosges, France, in the fall of 1918, where he took time off to execute about twenty-five canvases on his own, a number of which were depictions of soldiers and war destruction. After he returned to America, Greacen resumed his usual activities. In 1920 he was elected an Associate member of the National Academy and in 1921 he received the $1,000 Shaw Purchase Prize from the *Salmagundi Club. Greacen had another solo show in 1922 at the Macbeth Gallery, the champion art dealer of the American impressionist circle. It was also during this year that he and several others formed the Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association, subsequently renamed the *Grand Central Art Galleries. By 1924 Greacen with others formed the Grand Central School of Art, a project to which he remained devoted for many years. He was instrumental in providing a well-rounded curriculum by encouraging courses in illustration, interior decorating, and anatomy. His directorship of the school also brought on increased social obligations, but he continued to execute his well-known garden subjects, portraits, and an occasional nude.
Greacen's work was seen in the spring and winter annuals of the National Academy and at the *Corcoran Gallery of Art during the 1920s as he continued to paint his typical subjects, although he spent more time in his studio than out-of-doors. Working through the early years of the Depression, Greacen was elected full academician in the NAD in 1935 and moved from 18th Street to the *National Arts Club at Grammercy Park. Two years later he suffered the first of a series of strokes that were to stop his active career. After the closing of the Grand Central School in 1944, the Greacens moved to the Gulf Coast of Florida. Following several more strokes, Edmund Greacen died in 1949 at the age of seventy-three. His death went largely unnoticed, while the austere art of Pierre Soulages, Robert Motherwell, and Franz Kline had replaced the impressionists' imagery of the genteel *Good Life with a new, urgent, and direct creative expression.
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Paintings by Edmund Greacen
| Nan with Doll |
| oil on canvas: 24 x 22 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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| Reflections |
| oil on canvas: 30 x 30 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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| The White Vase |
| oil on canvas: 30 x 25 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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| Floral Still Life |
| oil on canvas: 30 x 25 inches |
| estate stamp reverse |
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| Le Pont de Vernon, vu de Giverny |
| oil on canvas: 25 3/4 x 32 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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| Sublime Winter (The Snowy Brook) |
| oil on canvas: 25 1/2 x 32 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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| Seated Ballerina |
| oil on canvas: 36 x 26 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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| Ethol in the Library |
| oil on canvas: 31 x 25 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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| Winter, Lieutenant River |
| oil on canvas: 22 x 36 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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