17 Facts About Elioth Gruner

Elioth Lauritz Leganyer Gruner was an Australian artist.

Elioth Gruner won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting seven times, the most of any Australian artist besides Hans Heysen.

Elioth Gruner was born in Gisborne, New Zealand, younger son of Elliott Elioth Gruner, a Norwegian-born bailiff, and his Irish wife Mary Ann, who died in 1922.

Elioth Gruner was brought to Sydney before he was a year old and at an early age showed a desire to draw.

Elioth Gruner managed to do some painting on weekends, and in 1901 began to send work to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists, Sydney.

In 1911 a small shop was started in Bligh Street, Sydney, to sell works of art produced in Australia, and for a time Elioth Gruner took charge of it.

Elioth Gruner then became an assistant to Julian Ashton at the Sydney Art School, and during Ashton's illness took complete charge of classes at the school for about three months.

Elioth Gruner was again the winner of the Wynne Prize in 1919 with his painting Spring Frost depicting Jim Innes and his cattle and in the following year the AGNSW trustees commissioned him to paint a large picture for the gallery, "The Valley of the Tweed".

In 1923 Elioth Gruner visited Europe and was away from Australia for around two years.

Elioth Gruner became less interested in the problems of light and occasionally his work took on a slightly cold aspect.

The changes were not always welcomed by his admirers, but Elioth Gruner was right not to allow himself to fall into a groove.

Elioth Gruner held a one-man show in 1927 and, not being a particularly productive artist, was in a position to sell almost everything he produced.

Elioth Gruner spent much time in finding a suitable subject, and more still in carefully considering it before a brushstroke was made.

Later, Elioth Gruner became interested in the study of light again, and some excellent works of his last period combined the qualities of his art and his passion.

Elioth Gruner suffered from chronic nephritis and died at his home at Waverley on 17 October 1939.

Elioth Gruner never married but he left descendants in Australia and New Zealand.

In September 2014, the Elioth Gruner painting, untitled but known as The dry road, 1930, was acquired by the Canberra Museum and Gallery, from a seller in Sydney.