UCI’s Art History Undergraduate Association (AHUA) hosted a virtual tour of the Laguna Art Museum (LAM) and examined paintings by Californian Impressionist Granville Redmond on Jan. 27.
LAM professional and cultural scholar Kristen Anthony began the virtual tour by introducing Redmond.
“[Redmond was] a California impressionist who contracted scarlet fever at the age of two and half years old, causing him to become permanently deaf,” Anthony said.
According to Anthony, Redmond was eight years old when his family relocated to San Jose, where he studied at the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley. There, he learned how to efficiently communicate via sign language with others.
Redmond immediately became interested in painting; he was influenced by Theophilus D’Estrella, an accomplished deaf painter and photographer. Redmond quickly found his passion and excelled in his art classes; he produced his first oil painting at only 11 years old. According to Anthony, if Redmond was picturing a scene, “he wanted to imagine himself in the scene and step into the moment.”
Upon his graduation at the California School for the Deaf, Redmond was given funds to attend the California School of Design in San Francisco where he worked for three years with teachers such as Arthur Frank Mathews and Amédée Joullin.
In 1893, Redmond won a scholarship from the California School of the Deaf to attend the Julian Academy in Paris. It was there where he learned from successful deaf sculptor Douglas Tilden, another graduate from the California School for the Deaf. Redmond went on to study in Paris for five years, practicing his love for painting with some of the best teachers in the world.
In 1901, Redmond’s artistic career started to flourish. According to LAM dioicent David Powers his early paintings such as “Moonlight on the Marsh ” and “Evening” portrayed his tonalistic approach to canvas paintings.
“Granville [Redmond] loved to paint about weather, it excited him,” LAM docent David Powers said.
LAM’s virtual tour introduced “Flowers Under the Oaks,” which displays Redmond’s view of the Californian poppies, and “Sugarloaf, Avalon,” which features the beautiful scenery of Avalon Harbor in Catalina Island as some of Redmond’s most beautiful paintings.
Over the years, Redmond painted from San Francisco down to Laguna Beach. He also acted in multiple movies alongside his friend Charlie Chapman. According to Powers, Redmond loved acting in movies for many reasons. Redmond was “no stranger to sitting in theater absorbing the dramatic influence of art in movies.” Redmond also loved to represent deaf actors since he had the freedom to “play himself” being a deaf man.
Today, Redmond’s work continues to be auctioned, and his gallery is displayed for everyone to see at the LAM in Laguna Beach, California. A list of Redmond’s movie productions can be found here.
James Huston is a Campus News Intern for the winter 2021 quarter. He can be reached at hustonj@uci.edu.
