Fall 2024 UPDATE – Pennsylvania Heritage magazine reproduces Grell’s version of Johnny Appleseed on the cover of its Fall 2024 magazine and inside along with an article on the history of Johnny Appleseed. Thank you Pennsylvania Heritage; Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.
Volume L, Number 4; The Appleseed of a Nation by Don Sarvey
From wikipedia:
“John Chapman (September 26, 1774 – March 18, 1845), better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples. He was also a missionary for The New Church (Swedenborgian) and the inspiration for many museums and historical sites such as the Johnny Appleseed Museum in Urbana, Ohio, and the Johnny Appleseed Heritage Center in Ashland County, Ohio. The Fort Wayne TinCaps, a minor league baseball team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Chapman spent his final years, is named in his honor.”
Grell presented this painting to his sister Helen in 1949. Notice the fractured bush or small tree at lower left and the pink hue to the clouds which are both prominent in many Grell imagineered compositions.
Exhibited: Grant Wood – Louis Grell two man show from 2012 to 2017, Pottawattamie County Courthouse, Council Bluffs, IA.
Oil on Canvas, signed l/r “LOUIS GRELL 1944″
painting = 31″ x 31″ frame = 35.5″ x 35.75”