he was able to immerse himself in of eleven Gruelle children, he sier Group painters were increas­ the intricacies of landscape had sacrificed formal art study in or­ ingly drawn to the peaceful without being unduly disturbed with der to help with the obligations of countryside of their youth. No longer the goings-on of his rambunctious his large childhood family. Gruelle did occasional jaunts to their tucked- boys. never gave up pursuing his art, away painting spots satisfy them; aced with the responsibili­ though. As a boy in , he had they wanted to live in the midst of ties of raising four children even apprenticed himself to a village the scenes that had been crowding alone, Stark—left a wid­ sign painter, “thinking that the use their canvases for decades. For this F ower after the death of his of paint and the mixing of colors purpose, in 1898, Steele and Adams Parisian wife Marie—also became a would be an advantage to him and, purchased a spacious old house on teacher. In 1899 he took over as the at the same time, enable him to earn the eastern fork of the Whitewater supervisor of art at Manual Training a living.” River near Brookville. Soon known High School in , and in An artistic jack-of-all-trades, as the “Hermitage,” it became Ad­ 1905 he joined the faculty at Herron Gruelle moved to Indianapolis in ams’s permanent residence as well as an instructor of composi­ as a seasonal studio for tion and illustration. Steele, Forsyth, Stark, and Stark was as steady in his other artist friends coming teaching methods as Forsyth down from Indianapolis or was mercurial. According to up from . several of his pupils, he was teele’s wife of patient and thorough while twenty-nine years, presenting the fundamen­ Libbie Lakin Steele, tals of art in a deceptively Sdied of tuberculosis simple manner. This soft- at the age of forty-nine in spoken teacher—who, ac­ 1899. Eight years later a sil­ cording to an Indianapolis ver-headed Steele sold his News writer, “had a real half interest in the Hermit­ artist’s thumb, the size of age to Adams, and, attracted a spatula, and knobby by the rugged terrain of hands”—required those in southern , he bought his classes to work carefully more than two hundred and accurately, and one ap­ acres in the heavily wooded preciative student remem­ hills of Brown County. High bered him as being gentle atop a windswept hill, he with his criticism. built a four-room cabin stu­ Indianapolis artist Elmer dio, fitting it out with all the Taflinger, a student at Man­ gear the sixty-year-old artist ual in the early 1900s, was would need. Before too many particularly impressed that months, the rustic bunga­ his teacher had an indepen­ low—built shortly before his dent reputation as an artist marriage to Selma Neu- on the East Coast. “Of all T. C. Steele. bacher in August 1907—had those who put a picture to­ earned its nickname as the gether, Otto Stark was the best com­ 1882, where he later received com­ “House of the Singing Winds.” poser,” Taflinger bragged. “We used missions to illustrate James Whit­ Beginning in 1922, Steele and his to get together in New York, some of comb Riley’s “When the Frost Is on wife escaped the harsh Brown us who had studied with Stark and the Punkin” and “The Old Swim- County winters by staying each year congratulate ourselves on the fact min’-Hole.” Despite his successes in the nearby college town of Bloom­ that we were so much better pre­ within the Hoosier state, he was for­ ington. The painter had been invited pared than people from all over the ever chasing the horizon, often for there as an honorary professor of art world.” months at a time. In addition to by Indiana University’s president The fifth member of the Hoosier working in and around the India­ William Lowe Bryan. In exchange Group, Richard B. Gruelle, was napolis area, he headed off to Wash­ for studio space on the top floor of the comfortable working as an illu­ ington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; school’s library, Steele had only to strator, a portraitist, or a land­ and Gloucester, Massachusetts, dur­ paint. During mild weather, IU’s fa­ scapist, depending on the needs of ing extended sketching trips. vorite artist-in-residence would set his patron. One of the youngest With the passing years, the Hoo­ up outside, encouraging passing stu-

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