13 Facts About Granville Redmond

Granville Richard Seymour Redmond was an American landscape painter and exponent of Tonalism and California Impressionism.

Granville Redmond was an occasional actor with his friend Charlie Chaplin.

However, Guilbert Braddock asserts that Granville Redmond was Deaf from infancy.

Granville Redmond attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley from 1879 to 1890 where his artistic talents were recognized and encouraged.

When he graduated from CSD, Granville Redmond enrolled at another CSD: the California School of Design in San Francisco, where he worked for three years with teachers such as Arthur Frank Mathews and Amedee Joullin.

Granville Redmond associated with many other artists, including Gottardo Piazzoni and Giuseppe Cadenasso.

Piazzoni learned American Sign Language, and he and Granville Redmond became lifelong friends.

In 1893 Granville Redmond won a scholarship from the California School of the Deaf, which made it possible for him to study in Paris at the Academie Julian under teachers Jean-Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant.

Granville Redmond roomed with the sculptor Douglas Tilden, another graduate of the California School for the Deaf.

Granville Redmond was married in 1899 to Carrie Ann Jean, a former student of the Illinois School for the Deaf.

Chaplin asked Granville Redmond to help him develop the techniques Chaplin later used in his silent films.

Chaplin, impressed with Granville Redmond's skill, gave Granville Redmond a studio on the movie lot, collected his paintings, and sponsored him in silent acting roles, including the sculptor in City Lights.

Granville Redmond died on May 24,1935 in Los Angeles.