Beach
oil
48" x 36"
2008
48" x 36"
2008
Richard Grosvenor
Newport,RI
Richard Grosvenor was born in St. Jean de Luz, France, of American parents in 1928 and has spent most of his early and adult life in Newport, R.I. It was his teacher, Richard S. Meryman, at Groton School in Groton, Mass., that opened up the world of painting to him. Grosvenor remarked that ‘his whole emphasis was sunlight.’ Other artists that influenced his early years were Charles Curtis Allen and George Demetrios of Rockport, Maine. In 1951 he graduated from Harvard University.
After graduating from Harvard, he was soon employed as a commercial artist by the National Foremans Institute in New London, Conn., and then by the Electric Boat Company of General Dynamics in Groton, Conn. In 1953 he was appointed to head the art department at St. George’s School in Newport where he taught painting, drawing and the history of art and architecture for 40 years. The school recently honored Grosvenor and a former art teacher William Drury by naming the new fine arts building in their honor.
Grosvenor is best known for his watercolors, oils and multi-panel paintings. His work reflects the sea and the coast and since he was a pilot, his paintings have a certain perspective that comes from being airborne. All of Grosvenor’s paintings are rooted in a sense of place and his affinity for Narragansett Bay. He remarked, “I keep going back to this area to paint because the seasons, the weather and the light are constantly changing. You have clouds, shadows, extreme fog and light flashing off the water. It is never the same.”
His work is included in many community, corporate and private collections throughout the country. Grosvenor was selected by the White House Historical Society to paint a scene of the White House for their bi-centennial calendar for the year 2000. In 2000, the Newport Art Museum honored Grosvenor with a 50-year retrospective of his artwork and in 2008 the museum featured an exhibition of work by Grosvenor’s students and teachers, as well as the artist himself. Grosvenor was also commissioned by the Tall Ships Committee to create an oil painting commemorating the Tall Ships’ visit to Newport in 2000. The work was made in to a poster that was sold at the occasion.
Grosvenor has won numerous awards at exhibitions at the Providence Art Club, the Newport Art Association, and the Rhode Island Watercolor Society. One of his multi-panel works was used as the cover for the Textron Corporation’s annual report. Grosvenor is the author and illustrator of “Newport, An Artist’s Impression of its Architecture and History,” published by Commonwealth Editions in 2002. It is now in its second printing.
Grosvenor received the Governor’s Award for “Best in Show” at the Scenes of Rhode Island exhibit in 2006 at the capitol complex of the Rhode Island Statehouse.Newport,RI
dickgrosv@cox.net