Birth place:  NYC

Death place: White Plains, NY

Addresses: Paris, France; NYC; Old Lyme, CT; Florida Gulf Coast; White Plains, NY, from 1948

Profession: Painter, teacher

Studied: NYU (B.A.); Europe; ASL, 1899; NY School Art with W.M. Chase, R. Henri, F.V. DuMond, F.L. Mora, and Everett Shinn before 1907; ASL

Exhibited: PAFA, 1906-09, 1915-17, 1921-27, 1933-36; AIC; Madison Art Gal., NYC, 1910; Folsom Gal., NYC, 1911 (solo); Corcoran Gal, 1912, 1919, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1932; Toledo Mus. Art, 1914 (solo); SC, 1921 ($1000 Shaw Purchase Prize); S.Indp.A., 1917; Macbeth Gal., NYC, 1922 (solo); NAC, 1923 (prize), 1935 (prize); Cummer Gal. Art, Jacksonville, FL, 1972 (retrospective)

Member: ANA, 1920; NA, 1935; AWCS; SC; AAPL; NAC; Lotos Club; Lg. Am. Artists (founder)

Work: Butler AI; NAC; Newark Mus.

Comments: Impressionist painter. Greacen married Ethol Booth in 1904 and a year later went to Spain with Chase and a group of his students; he lived at Giverny from the summer of 1907 until fall of 1909, painting vivid garden scenes. Returning to the U.S. in 1909, he lived in NYC and also became part of the summer art colony at Old Lyme, CT, which he visited from 1909-17. Also painted in Bermuda, c.1911. He was an influential figure in the New York art community, founding the Grand Central School of Art in 1924 (served as its head for 20 years) and also helping found Grand Central Art Galleries. While in NYC, he usually painted indoors, doing portraits and cityscapes. From 1937 on he suffered from poor health as a result of a series of strokes. His daughter, Nan, became a painter.

Sources: WW47; Bruce Weber, The Giverny Luminists: Frieseke, Miller, and Their Circle, 15-16; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 2: 738; Connecticut and American Impressionism 160 (w/repro.); Art in Conn.: The Impressionist Years (cites birthdate of 1876); Falk, Exh. Record Series.

Biography courtesy of Who Was Who in American Art, the reference book on the cultural life in the United States.