Brushwork for the Oil Painter

Emile Gruppe was a very successful Massachusetts painter and art instructor. Due to his prodigious output, there are literally thousands of his works in existence and they frequently appear at auctions and art galleries. I doubt anyone would say that Emile Gruppe's work is in the same league as Sargent, Bellows, Hopper, Eakins, Bunker, Homer or Mary Cassatt but, at its best, it captures the feel of the day and is charming and colorful. The title of the book, "Brushwork for the Oil Painter", is really just a pretext for writing another book about how to paint in oils outdoors. Sure, he tries to tie his comments back to that theme, but the most useful parts of the book explain his materials and approach to constructing a picture. He explains his "limited", pure color palette (a warm and cool of each primary), and how to convey depth and light as well as several tricks of the trade. Close ups, with call outs, describe various brush stroke and other techniques. The book is loaded with photographs of his paintings; many are quite different than his prototypical ships at docks in Gloucester. I've seen so many of the "ships at the docks" paintings that it was fun to see other subjects and some of his rarer, earlier works. I bought the book without having seen it and I was pleasantly surprised by its usefulness. The only negative is that some of the photographs and close ups are black and white which sometimes makes it take a little longer to figure out what he is getting at. On a personal note, I thoroughly enjoyed his brief descriptions of his interactions with Charles Hawthorne, John Carlson, Robert Henri and Harvey Dunn. In closing, at the end of the book, there is a selected Bibliography. Since people reading this review are probably interested in learning how to paint, and I think the list is very good, here it is: George Bridgeman's "Life Drawing", John F. Carlson's "Landscape Painting", Gruppe's "Gruppe on Painting" and "Gruppe on Color" (I have not read these two), Charles Hawthorne's "Hawthorne on Painting" and last, but not least, Robert Henri's "The Art Spirit".