Emile Gruppé was an expressive impressionistic American plein air landscape and seascape painter and among the most prominent artists of the Cape Ann School. Gruppé helped found the Rockport Art Association in 1921 but he is most closely linked to Gloucester, where he lived from about 1940 until his death. With its fleet of whimsically painted fishing vessels and crowded wharf buildings and shacks, Gloucester never ceased to fascinate Gruppé. His style, which tended towards tonalism early in his career, mutated into a bold impressionism in the 1940s and 1950s. Gruppé operated the Gloucester School of Painting from the 1940s into the 1970s and helped turn the Rocky Neck area of East Gloucester into a world famous art colony. Gruppé’s work is in numerous private collections, museums and is represented by leading galleries throughout the country.