Albert Lorey Groll was born December 8, 1866 in New York City. He spent his early years as a student first in London and then in Munich, Germany at the Royal Academy studying with historical genre and landscape painter Ludwig Von Loefftz (1845-1910) and genre painter Nickolaus Gysis (1842-1901). Groll also studied briefly at the Royal Academy in Antwerp, something few Americans were doing in the late 19th century. In 1895, Groll returned to New York City and began his art career as an illustrator and cartoonist. Although he had a profound love for the figure painting, it was short lived because he couldnt afford to hire a model. He would turn his attention to natural beauty of the American. In 1905, as a guest of Indian dealer Lorenzo Hubbell, Groll would make his first trip to Arizona and New Mexico and stay at his friends Ganado trading post. This first trip to the desert revealed an endless subject for Groll to paint for the rest of his career. Using the desert, Groll became a prolific, much admired and successful western desert landscape and skyscape painter. The Laguna Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were so admiring of his landscapes they named him Chief Bald-Head-Eagle Eye.

Although he was much recognized in the East and maintained a studio in New York City, he continued to return to the West to paint in the desert. It was his desert landscape that alerted the general public to the varying conditions of Arizona that made it so appealing. In Dorothy Harmsens book, "American Western Art," she wrote that he and his paintings caused Americans to "recognize the artistic possibilities that existed in the Arizona and New Mexico landscape.&. "This sagebrush and cactus country, laying broad and low with arid yellow soil, stretching away to a sky full of clouds, make an unforgettable picture".

Although, his main subject was the desert, Groll would maintain his studio in New York City where he associated with the cultural elite. In 1897, Groll would begin exhibiting, as an associate member, at the National Academy of Design. He was elected to full Academician in 1910 and won a Gold Medal in 1911. In 1903, he would begin exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Chicago Art Institute. Groll's desert scene, "Arizona," won a Gold Medal at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1906. He was awarded a Silver Medal at the 1915 San Francisco Exposition.

Groll would lead a very successful life as a professional painter until his death in 1952 in New York City. His work is included in the permanent collections of over 20 museums around the country including the Phoenix Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton