Merton Grenhagen

WE SEEK PAINTINGS BY MERTON GRENHAGEN. CONTACT US AT: info@GalleryofWisconsinArt.com

BORN:1878 Orihula/Fremont, WI
DIED: 1941 Madison, WI

Merton Grenhagen was born on a farm near Lake Poygan, WI (near Orihula - between Tustin and Fremont). Grenhagen was born Leon Lorado Merton Gruenhagen, but as an artist became known as Grenhagen or Gren Hagen and signed his paintings as such.

As a young adult, he studied electrical engineering and took art classes in his spare time at the Art Institute of Chicago. He received a scholarship for the Julian Academy in Paris where he spent a year before returning to America.

Grenhagen later taught at The Art Institute of Chicago before establishing a studio in Oshkosh. Grenhagen was one of Wisconsin’s most sought-after portrait artists of the period and a member of the Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. Around 1930, he moved to Madison where he painted portraits of socialites, physicians, political leaders, governors, Supreme Court justices, members of UW faculty and administration. From 1936-1937 Grenhagen was employed as an artist with the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
 
Portraits by Grenhagen are in the collections of the Oshkosh Public Museum, University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin State Historical Society and the Museum of Wisconsin Art.  He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art.

BIOGRAPHICAL CREDITS: Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI, Oshkosh Public Museum,