William C. Grauer (Ohio, 1896-1985) oil on canvas marine painting depicting a seaside village with three figures standing on a porch and beside a building, and four boats in the foreground, under a darkening sky. Signed "Wm. C. Grauer" lower right. Housed in a giltwood and black painted frame. Sight – 29 1/2" H x 35 3/4" W. Framed – 37 1/2" H x 43 1/2" W. American, second/third quarter 20th century. Provenance: Estate of Carl Klein, Brentwood, TN. Biography: "William C. Grauer was a painter, muralist, and art teacher active in Cleveland for nearly 60 years. Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art in 1914 and saw service in France during World War I. Coming to Cleveland as a freelance artist in 1927, he married Natalie Eynon (1888-1955), a fellow native Philadelphian and artist with whose career his own became intertwined. Invited to contribute murals to the President's Cottage at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., in 1932, they returned to found and co-direct the Old White Art Colony, School and Gallery there during the summers from 1934-40. During the same period they also started the art department at Cleveland College of Western Reserve University. Grauer painted murals for the West Virginia exhibitions in both the Chicago Century of Progress (1933) and the New York World's Fair (1939). Following the death of his wife, Grauer married another Cleveland College art instructor, Dorothy Turobinski, in 1964. He retired from Western Reserve University as associate professor of art in 1966 but continued to paint and to teach privately. Increasingly abstract in style in his later years, his work was exhibited in 55 May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art". (source: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History). CONDITION: Overall very good condition with minute areas of paint loss to edges of canvas.