GRANVILLE SEYMOUR REDMOND (1886-1935)                 Artist Images

In 1898, he returned to California, changed his first name to Granville, and settled in Los Angeles, where he painted many scenes of Laguna Beach, Catalina Island, and San Pedro. He was married in 1899 to Carrie Ann Jean, a graduate of the Illinois School for the Deaf. Together they had three children. While living in Los Angeles, he became friends with Charlie Chaplin, whom he helped in perfecting his pantomime techniques. Chaplin gave Redmond a studio on the movie lot, collected many of his paintings, and sponsored him in silent acting roles including playing the sculptor in "City Lights", and a feature part in "You'd Be Surprised." He also got to know Los Angeles neighbor artists Elmer Wachtel and Norman St. Clair. All three exhibited paintings with Laguna Beach titles at the annual Spring Exhibition held in San Francisco in 1904. By 1905 Redmond was receiving considerable recognition as a leading landscape painter and bold colorist.

Redmond's early works in Los Angeles were mostly moody Tonal landscapes, scenes of farmers and their animals, and nocturnes similar to those by John Bond Francisco and other scenic painters in Northern California. Redmond also sought subjects throughout the state's coastal regions, such as Silver and Gold (oil on canvas, Laguna Art Museum), and often summered in Monterey County, where he later settled in 1908. In 1910, he moved farther north to San Mateo, becoming a member of San Francisco's art establishment, but he continued to exhibit in Los Angeles and to associate with that city's artists, returning to live there in 1918.

From 1910 to 1917, he spent time in various Northern California locations, studying and painting. About the time he moved north, Redmond turned to rendering sweeping terrains covered with highly colorful wildflowers, especially the purple lupine and California's state flower, the golden poppy. He developed a colorism and brushwork linked to Impressionism, though he was motivated more by his subjects than by aesthetic theory. West Coast critics at that time noted his use of Pointillism and likened his art to that of Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. Although Redmond recognized the public's preference for his brightly colored poppy pictures, he generally preferred to paint darker, more poetic scenes. Some of his finest paintings are of Catalina Island in Southern California, and of the oaks of Monterey County in Northern California.

His work is held in many collections including: Laguna Beach Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stanford University Museum, the De Young Museum, the Bancroft Library at the University of California in Berkeley, The California School for the Deaf, the New York City Museum, and the Oakland Museum, where in 1989, a retrospective of his work was shown. He was also a member of numerous clubs, including The Bohemian Club of San Francisco, the California Art Club, The Laguna Beach Art Association, and the San Francisco Art Association.

Granville Redmond died on May 24, 1935 in Los Angeles.

Source:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940