Art Collection – Greeting Card ‘Evening in St Ives Bay’ by Louis Grier (1864–1920)

Louis Grier (1864-1920)
Louis Reginald James Munro Grier (Australian/British) was born in Melbourne Australia, and brother to Edmund Wyly Grier also an artist. Louis rejected a banking career and travelled the world – looking for painting experience before settling in St. Ives in 1890. Louis was known as a party-goer, fun-loving and social person, who sported striking clothing, including a black cape and high boots. His work was strongly influenced by Whistler and the French Impressionists. In 1910 he donated one of his paintings to be auctioned for the Relief Fund set up in St Ives after the loss of the fishing boat Lily John. He was the author of ‘A Painters Club (at St Ives, Cornwall)’ in The Studio (V:110). He established a painting school called the “St. Ives School of Marine and Landscape Painting” with fellow marine painter Julius Olsson in 1895 in Olsson’s vast Studio at Porthmeor Studios overlooking the Porthmeor beach.

By 1897 however, Grier and Olsson realised they could not work together so Grier then set up a school in his studio called The Foc’sle, situated on the wharf overlooking St Ives Harbour. He was a founder member of the St. Ives Arts Club in 1890 and was an active member of the Club for over 30 years although he never held office on the Committee. He won a medal at the Paris Salon in 1891 and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1914 and 1920. His work was included in the Cornish Painters exhibition at the Whitechapel Art gallery, London in 1902.

Text source: cornwallartists.org