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This cityscape features the State House, the brilliantly lighted Park Theatre, and Washington Street's bustling commercial life.  The tower of the old Marion County Courthouse can be seen in the distance.

Groll, a German artist, came to judge the German paintings at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and also spent time visiting relatives here.

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Theodor Groll

Washington Street, Indianapolis at Dusk, 1892-1895

oil on canvas

76 x 98 ½ in.

Gift of a Couple of Old Hoosiers

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Theodor Groll was a noted landscape and architectural painter in Dűsseldorf, Germany. He was well-known in his own time and exhibited widely in Germany. Although Groll is not an American artist, he did make a three-year visit to the United States beginning in 1892. He came to judge the German entries at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. During his American sojourn, Groll came to Indianapolis to visit the Lieber family, who were relatives. Frederick Herman Lieber, whose sister, Laura, had married Groll’s father in 1823, founded the most important art gallery in the city and was an early patron of Indiana’s most famous artist, T.C. Steele.

Groll’s magnificent view of Washington Street was completed in Germany, presumably from sketches and photographs he took during his Indianapolis visit. The painting shows the Statehouse at the left and the Park Theatre, in the center, illuminated by gaslight and electricity and with hansom cabs queued up in front. To the right is a dramatically receding vista of the skyline of the city, with the tower of the old Marion County Courthouse in the far distance. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument does not appear in the picture as it was under construction at the time. At the center of the painting, the Blake Street trolley is hailed by a bearded gentleman, Jacob Metzger, whose sister Marie was married to Frederick Lieber. The painting was unknown until a German art dealer consigned it to auction at Sotheby’s London in the fall of 1972. It was acquired by the Indianapolis Museum of Art that year through a generous gift from Eli Lilly and Ruth Lilly, who chose to be identified as “A Couple of Old Hoosiers.”

Reference

The best source for further information on Theodor Groll is the artist’s file the IMA library.