John W. De Groot was the son of a government printer, born in Washington, DC. A scholarship student at the Corcoran Art Gallery, he went on to study at the Art Students League in New York. In the late 1930s he worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch as a writer and illustrator. He painted two murals for the U.S. Department of Treasury's Section of Fine Arts. An ardent sailor, he moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1940, where he opened the city's first art gallery. He readily obtained contracts to paint murals for a number of beach hotels. Looking for other marketable products in this part of the country, he hit upon the idea of creating murals from small hand-cut and hand-glazed tiles. These proved to be great success, and De Groot would serve up swimming pools decorated with anything from swordfish to hot dogs. His largest work adorned the facade of a five-story building. Unfortunately, as the facade deteriorated, it was impossible to save the mural, and the facade was demolished in 2012.Prize Room in a Richmond Tobacco FactoryBarracuda
Critical Analysis
De Groot was one of many artists who found employment as commercial illustrators during the Depression. Like these other artists, De Groot had a boost to his career in painting two Post Office murals. His interests and concentration evolved after the war. Unlike many other artists, who moved from representational art to abstraction, De Groot moved from the medium of oil on canvas to his unique approach to tile mosaic murals.
