Vintage Vignette

Coming home: Historic Emile A. Gruppé painting donated by Mary and Stephen Smith a treasured gift for modern clubhouse

When second-generation artist Emile A. Gruppé bought a seasonal home in Naples in 1960, he was nationally recognized for establishing the Gloucester School of Painting in Massachusetts 20 years earlier. Gruppé wasted no time immersing himself in town, and taught classes at the city’s first gallery, McNichols Fine Art.

Gruppé was renowned for his impressionistic coastal vignettes and landscapes painted in oil, in both locales where he split his time and palette. In addition to his studies at the National Academy of Design in New York and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, he was engrossed in art growing up as a son of Charles P. Gruppé, a well-known painter and art dealer for Dutch painters in the United States. Emile’s son, Robert, follows in his footsteps today on Gloucester Harbor and along Naples’ shores. (Both of their award-winning works are held locally and nationally in museum and private collections.)

Society board member and immediate past chair, has a deep passion and knowledge of local history. When she came across a 36” x 30” oil painting of the Naples Yacht Club created by Gruppé in 1968, she instinctually recognized where it belonged: in the renewed clubhouse.

Because Gruppé painted in plein air, this painting has the magical ability to transport viewers to that day on Naples Bay when he decided to invest his talent into capturing this iconic building on the waterfront. Now, this tranquil scene of the original one-story clubhouse—on a breezy day with light chop lapping at the dock pilings and an American flag fluttering aloft a sailboat mast—can be enjoyed by all members, guests, and visitors. It was recently reframed and hangs in the hallway across from the Living Room.

Thank you, Past Commodore Stephen and Mary Smith, for this especially meaningful gift. The Naples Yacht Club is proud to display this nostalgic scene in honor of this talented artist and the Club’s past, as well as your contributions to our Club. 

2019-2020