Men from many parts of the country and with many backgrounds having nothing to do with logging or lumber ended up during World War 1 at Vancouver Barracks. Two such men of the Spruce Production Division were artists who already enjoyed some recognition for their work before coming to Vancouver.
ADRIAN BREWER
One of the more well-known painter-artists from Arkansas in the Twentieth century was Adrien Brewer. He was born into an artistic family in St Paul, Minnesota in 1891. His father, Nicholas, had been on the national art scene for some time before Adrian was born with works displayed at exhibitions in the National Academy of Design in New York since 1885. Adrian was named for the Seventeenth century Flemish painter Adriaen Brouwer.
twin cities and big apple
The family moved back and forth between Minnesota and New York as Adrian grew up. He attended the University of Minnesota in 1911 studying art while attending art classes at the Art Institute of St. Paul. In New York, he attended the Art Students’ League but learned much more from his father and his associates than from classes.
Going back to St. Paul in 1915, Brewer taught in St. Paul and Minneapolis for two years alongside commercial artwork and opening an art studio. In 1917, he travelled around the country to help as his father’s business manager.
welcome to the spruce production division
That all ended with World War 1. He enlisted or was drafted into the 444th Aero Construction Squadron which formed in February 1918 – redesignated the 12th Spruce in July. Part of the 1st Provisional Regiment of the SPD, the 12th Spruce served as Military Police for Vancouver Barracks.
With his background as an artist and former commercial work, Brewer was given a much more appropriate job as one of the official artists of the Spruce Production Division producing art in poster, mural and painting to advertise the patriotic impetus behind the SPD. His posters displayed prominently on the front pages of several issues of the Monthly Bulletin of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen.
The somewhat haunting portrait of Brigadier General Brice Disque is maybe his most memorable contribution from his time with the SPD. Brewer was given a commission as a Second Lieutenant as a reward.
back to arkansas
Out of the Army in 1920, Brewer helped for a while with his father’s portrait studio in Little Rock. Then a bit stint in Minneapolis in advertising before returning to Arkansas to manage his father’s exhibitions. With a new family to support, he also took on portrait painting to support his passion of plein air painting.
Bluebonnet landscapes sold well in both Texas and New York letting him extend his outdoor scope to Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas, as well as closer to home landscapes in Arkansas.
The Depression ended closing an art school he established after a short run of three years. To help support the family, he fell back on portraits, painting in Arkansas and New York.
freedom rings
From World War 2 until his death in 1956, Brewer was involved in bringing art to the average citizen of Arkansas whether through woodcut postcard prints of Arkansas landmarks, USO classes in Little Rock – Gene Kelly was one of his students, or the organization of the Arkansas Art League.
The painting Brewer is most known for was painted in 1941 with war clouds building. It is of an American flag hanging loosely, The Sentinel of Freedom. Initially reluctant to take on the painting, he put the flag center stage with the Boston Mountains of Arkansas in the background. Rays of sunshine give the flag a spiritual feeling. The painting was reproduced millions of times during World War 2.
LOUIS GRELL
Perhaps Louis Grell is the better known of the two Spruce Production Division artists. Better known possibly for the fact he worked out of Chicago as opposed to Little Rock. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa to a German emigrant couple, Louis went to Germany in 1900 at only 12 years of age to study art.
teutontic education
After five years initial study of both language and painting fundamentals, he entered into the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg. As the school’s top student in 1907, the Royal Academie of Fine Arts in Munich sponsored him for the next four years. Here he also attended the University of Munich. He became a member of the American Artists Club. There, he became familiar with other young painters who joined him later as members of the Taos artist community.
He traveled through Europe to further his studies, paint and exhibit works until World War 1 interrupted. Escaping through Norway, Grell worked on Broadway designing stages in 1915 before landing in Chicago in the fall of 1916 as an art instructor at the Academy of Fine Arts. Here his roommate was fellow artist E. Martin Hennings who he knew from the American Artists Club in Munich. Both would eventually relocate from the Fine Arts Building in Chicago to the Tree Studios art colony in the north side. Grell lived at Tree Studios from 1917 until his 1960 death except for his time at the Vancouver Barracks.
He worked as the main art instructor Academy in Chicago until 1922 – also apart from his time in the west – with young Walt Disney as one of his students between 1917 and 1918.
spruce production division interregum
But World War 1 did interrupt. Drafted, he ended up at Vancouver Barracks with the SPD. With Brewer doing the monthly magazine, Grell, another of the Spruce Production Division coterie of artists, began doing illustrator-cartoonist for the weekly newspaper for the Cut-up Plant, Straight Grain. Like everything else involved with the American war effort in World War 1, the paper started up late in the war. A weekly effort, only eleven issues ended up produced from 26 October 1918 until 4 January 1919.
His drawing of General Disque – done from a photo – was not as successful as Brewer’s in a lieutenant’s commission was not forthcoming.
muralist supreme in the trees
What was, however, was his connection with the newspaper editor, Reverend Victor Hoag. As rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, Illinois, he commissioned Grell, in 1919, to produce the magnificent mural which stands behind the altar in the church. Murals definitely lay in Grell’s future.
He returned to teach at the Academy in Chicago before recruited away to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He worked there from 1922 until 1934. Best known for portraits and murals – his murals adorned many theaters and hotels, as well as a gamut of other buildings.