Emile Albert Gruppe (1896 - 1978) was born in Rochester New York to Helen and Charles P. Gruppe. He lived the early years of his life in the Netherlands as his father Charles Paulo Gruppe, painted with the Hague school of art and acted as a dealer for the Dutch painters in the US. The family returned permanently to the states around 1913 when rumblings of World War I were brewing. All of Emile's siblings established themselves in the arts. His oldest brother Paulo played the cello, his other brother Karl became a sculptor and his younger sister Virginia a watercolorist.

In the early 1930's Emile found his way to the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts and to the area known as Rocky Neck, one of the oldest artist communities in the US. Here he established his home and The Gloucester School of Painting (1940 - 1970) in an old school house with his mentor John Fabian Carlson. Later, the village of Cambridge and town of Jeffersonville, Vermont with their surrounding mountains became a second campus for his students. And still later, as he grew older, the warm breezes and good fishing of Naples Florida provided another palette for his landscapes.

During his lifetime Emile A. Gruppe received many awards for his work from many groups including:

·        The National Academy

·        The Salmagundi Club

·        North Shore Arts Association

·        Rockport Art Association

·        Allied Artists

He is represented in many museum and permanent collections and has held one man exhibitions throughout the U.S. Emile died on September 28, 1978.

He published three well known books on painting:

·        Gruppe on Painting (Watson Guptill), 1976

·        Brushwork (Watson Guptill), 1977

·        Gruppe on Color (Watson Guptill), 1979