George Pearse Ennis (1884-1936)

George Pearse Ennis (1884-1936)

George Pearse Ennis was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and is well known for his watercolors and his excellence as a teacher and lecturer. He first studied art at Washington University, St. Louis, continuing at the St. Louis Art Museum and the Holmes Art School in Chicago. He then moved to New York City to study at the Chase School of Art under William Merritt Chase. He later became a founder-member of the Grand Central Painters and Sculptors Gallery and taught at the gallery’s associated School of Art and it was through this teaching position that Ennis began leading painting trips to Eastport Maine in the early 1920s. He continued to summer in Eastport and spend the rest of the year in New York. He later established the Eastport School of Art, the Eastport Art Association, and the George Pearse Ennis School of Art (in New York City).

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Throughout Ennis’s life he was active in numerous clubs and exhibited widely. Between 1920 and 1935 he exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was a member of the Allied Artists of America, the Boston Art Club, the Salmagundi Club, the New York Watercolor Club, and served as the president of the American Watercolor Society starting in 1930. Ennis received awards from these institutions and others including a gold medal from the Philadelphia Water Color Club, and the Salmagundi Club’s Shaw Prize (which he received three times). In addition to watercolors and oil paintings, Ennis created numerous stained glass and large-scale murals, including pieces for the New York Athletic Club, the Victory Chapel at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, and numerous churches throughout New York. In 1936, at the age of 52, Ennis died in a car crash outside of Utica, New York. At the time of his death, he was directing the production of stained-glass windows for Washington Hall at the United States Military Academy at West Point which was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. Memorial exhibitions of the artist’s work were held at the Denver Art Museum, the Brooklyn Art Museum, and the Grand Central Galleries of New York.

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