Upper St. Mary's, Glacier National Park

Oliver Dennett Grover was a traditionalist who held to classical artistic values amidst the fury of modernism. He first painted the landscape of Italy, later expanding his subject matter to the American West and the Canadian Rockies. This painting centers on the area along the Canadian border in northwest Montana. Upper Saint Mary’s Lake is the second-largest lake of over 200 in Glacier National Park. Grover communicated the spectacular mountain scenery and turquoise-tinted lakes of the region. He cleverly employed a vertical format and high vantage point to stress the height and grandeur of the peaks. In the foreground, two small figures on horseback ride towards the viewer. One figure is clearly male and wears a red kerchief. The other figure---possibly a female--wears a wide-brimmed hat. The magnificent landscape nearly engulfs them in the breadth of its splendor. 

Grover was born in Earlville, Illinois, but after the 1871 Chicago fire, the opportunities in the big city lured his father to relocate the family to Chicago. His father Alonso was a lawyer, so Oliver Dennett attended the University of Chicago law school during the day, but studied art at night. He later enrolled at the Academy of Design, the predecessor of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1879, Grover received a bequest from his Godmother, setting his career in motion. He traveled to Europe to study art, first in Munich at the Royal Academy, then he crossed the Alps on foot to Venice and Florence. Grover also studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1883 to 1885. He returned to Chicago, becoming an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Art Academy.