Tree Studio Building artist directory display cabinet information can be found below.

TREE STUDIO BUILDING – America’s oldest resident artist colony, founded by Anne Tree and her husband Judge Lambert Tree in 1894 on land their children once rode horses, in what is now Chicago’s near-north side. Located between East Ontario Street and East Ohio Street on the North and South; North State Street and North Wabash Avenue on the West and East. Grell’s studio numbers were “0” & “16” and eventually he and Friedl would live at 617 North State Street at storefront level in the original 1894 structure where he lived, painted and had a small gallery.

Grell and Friedl would live together at Tree Studios their entire married lives; never having any children. Grell from 1916 until his death in 1960 and Friedl from the time they were married in 1922 until 1970 at which time she moved into a German nursing home in Chicago.  She was one of Tree Studios longest residents.

At Tree Studios artists’ colony, from 1916 until 1960, Grell associated with some of America’s brightest and most gifted artistic talent of the first half of the 20th century, many being art professors at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist residents included: “Tarzan and Jane” illustrator J. Allen St. John, sculptor Albin Polacek, Tarzan & Jane author Edgar Rice Burroughs, artist Macena Barton and her nudes, artists John and Anna Stacey, Taos artist E. Martin Hennings, George Ames Aldrich, sculptor Paul Bartlett and John D. Brcin, Frances Badger, Boris Anisfeld, Walter C. Brownson, Louis Betts, Nicholas R. Brewer and Adrian L. Brewer, Karl Buehr, Edgar S. Cameron and Marie Gelon Cameron, Ethel Lewis Coe, Walter M. Clute, Peter Diem, John Doctorof, Richard Florshiem, Ruth Van Sickle Ford, Gerald A. Frank, Frederick Freer, Rowena Fry, Frederick M. Grant, Oliver Dennett Grover, Indiana Gyberson, Frank B. Hoffman, sculptor Maximillian Hoffman, Charles Halloway, Antoinette B. Hollister, Donald J. Anderson, Lucie Hartrath, Natalie S. Henry, Edward G. Holslag, Marya Lilien, Felicia Modjeska, Harry Millhauser, sculptor Michael Thomas Murphy, O. Irwin Myers, Anna Lynch, fellow muralist John W. Norton, painter Arvid Nyholm, Sam Ostrowsky, Lawton S. Parker, Edgar A. Payne and Elsie P. Payne, Rudolph Pen, Andrew Rebori, Henry Reuterdahl, Wellington J. Reynolds, Louis Rittman, Romolo Roberti, Edgar Rupprecht, artist Gordon Saint Clair, George J. Seideneck, Leopold Seyffert, Marshall D. Smith, George Sotos, Antonin Sterba, sculptor John Bradley Storrs, Allan L. Swisher, Julia Bracken-Wendt and her husband William Wendt, Charles Sneed Williams, sculptor Emil R. Zettler, Harold Key Welch (was first a student, then a neighbor of Grell’s) and impressionist Pauline Palmer .

Many believe Tree Studios artist colony to be the oldest and most prestigious resident art colony in America inspiring this country’s best talent since 1894.  Actors Burgess Meredith and Peter Faulk lived at Tree Studios for brief periods.

Jim Romano maintained Romano Gallery fronting on North State Street from the 1960’s until well into the 1990’s and featured Tree Studio art.  Romano sold numerous Grell paintings primarily in the late 1970’s.

Included here are the only known pictures of the baby waif abandoned by his parents at the doorsteps of the Tree Studio building, legally adopted by five resident artists, where children were forbidden to live, named under court order to be know as Rembrandt Micheal Angelo Tree Torrey the first, where he was raised, educated and lived until adulthood.

Artist Directory Cabinet – This original building artifact is one of two artist studio directories that was on display in one of the two building annexes for nearly 100 years.  The names were recently added as examples only.  The original name plates had the artists’ studio number listed so visitors could locate them.  Names were chosen by the current owner of the artifact and represent only a fraction of the nearly 500 artists who lived there over the decades;  c1910, bronze and brass, three hinge glass door with dividers, 40″ x 25 3/8″ x 1 3/8″ approx. 60 pounds.

Names currently on display in the Tree Studio Building artist directory: E. Martin Hennings, Peter Falk, Macena Barton, Indiana Gyberson, Ann & John Lynch, Marie & Edgar Cameron, waif Rembrandt Micheal Angelo Tree Torrrey I, Louis Grell, J. Allen St. John, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Albin Polasek, John Warner Norton, Wellington J. Reynolds, Antonin Sterba, William Wendt, Burgess Meredith, Pauline Palmer, Edgar Payne, John Storrs, Anna Lynch and Julia Bracken Wendt.

*Photos of the artist directory cabinet published by permission of its current owner.

-ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT PROTECTED-