Louis Oscar Griffith
(1875 - 1956)
"Louis Oscar Griffith studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to his visits to
Brown County (Indiana), he sketched his way to France, England, New York, New Orleans, Mexico, and back to Texas. Unlike many
other artists, who turned to etching late in thier careers, Griffith became interested in copper etching early, probably around 1900. He
had worked for an engraving firm in Chicago and had done color prints. He was nationally known for his work with aquatints and won a
bronze medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. The move to Brown County (1920) gave him
more time for etching, and by the end of his career he had completed more than three hundred plates in black and white or in color.
Brown County also brought improvements in Griffith's oil painting technique, and he became a regular exhibitor at the
Hoosier Salon, where he received several awards. He won the Palette and Chisel Club gold medal in 1921, the Daughters of Indiana
prize in 1925, and Chicago Society of Etchers prizes in 1949 and 1953. Ten of his etchings were shown at the Sesquicentennial
International Exposition in Philadelphia in 1926, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington held a special exhibit of his prints in
1945. He was a charter member of both the Brown County Art Gallery Association, in which he was active between 1926 and 1954, and
the Brown County Art Guild."
THE ARTISTS OF BROWN COUNTY, Lyn Letsinger-Miller, Indiana Press 1994.