International studio (52.1914)

Alexander Grinager


BOYS BATHING BY A. GRINAGER

Alexander grinager: an ap-
preciation
>. There are artists whose fame is

spread abroad on every occasion and
who, willy-nilly, are ever before the footlights; and
there are artists, too, possessed of a little private
trumpet which seldom reposes in its case; there
are still other artists who, like the violet ’neath a
mossy stone, exude their fragrance in artistic soli-
tude—of such is Alexander Grinager, a native
of Minnesota, and owing to excessive mod-
esty practically unknown. Yet he is doing splen-
did work. He has spent many winters studying
in Copenhagen and his summers in wandering
through Jotund Fjelderne, the Wild Mountains,
with Grieg and Sinding as his comrades. The
impression they received, in the case of Grieg and
Sinding, found expression in music, while Grinager
records them upon canvas.
The out-of-door feeling is very marked in all
his compositions and his two great qualities are an
admirable rendering of sunlight and a capable
handling of running streams. His Boys Bathing
and Auvers sur Oise are bathed in sunlight. The
former picture was hung in the Academy, but
owing to being skied was only seen by few, and
then to disadvantage.
Mr. Grinager has exquisite feeling for every
change, however subtle, between sunrise and sun-
set, and shows fine sentiment when painting the

close of day, caressed by soft gold and opal light.
He paints broadly or smoothly, to suit his subject,
and the picture we reproduce representing one of
his sons, shows the reverence he bears to the old


A SON OF MINE

BY A. GRINAGER

XXIV