Laguna Art Museum Shares the Talent of Deaf Painter With the Hearing-Impaired

Painter Granville Redmond achieved a rare feat within his field: He supported himself most of his life through his art. But in doing so, he won an even greater battle: Redmond, who earned prominence among early 20th-Century artists with landscapes of the Golden State, from fiery sunsets to ethereal moonlit marshes, was deaf.

The Laguna Art Museum, exhibiting the first major survey of works by Redmond (1871-1935) through Nov. 19, is making an effort to share his talent with the deaf community by offering docent tours of the 76-piece show accompanied by interpreters for the hearing-impaired.

“We elected to do this exhibit based on the quality of the art, not on the fact that Granville Redmond was deaf,” museum director Charles Desmarais said recently. “But the fact that he can serve as a role model for deaf people is something we are aware of and pleased to pass on to new audiences.”

The museum, which is offering free, interpreter-assisted tours by appointment, is coordinating its effort with such service organizations as Orange County Deaf, Greater Los Angeles Deaf (providing the interpreters) and the National Center on Deafness based at Cal State Northridge.

The center, which primarily helps hearing-impaired students “mainstream” into the university, is publicizing the tours and arranging a group tour and transportation for anyone who is interested, said the center’s director Victor Galloway, who is deaf.

“Many deaf people can easily identify with Redmond, a graduate of the California School of the Deaf,” said Galloway through an interpreter during a phone interview Monday. “And deaf people are excited that one of their own has achieved acclaim.”

Redmond, born in Philadelphia, was left deaf from scarlet fever at age 2. He never learned to speak. In the late 19th Century, the deaf were widely considered uneducable, if not retarded. But Redmond’s parents entered him in the highly regarded California School of the Deaf, then located in Berkeley and now in Fremont, where he learned sign language, mime, and first studied art.

After graduating, he went to Paris on a scholarship. There, his paintings were well-received. A haunting work titled “Matin d’Hiver,” included in the Laguna Beach exhibit, was accepted into the Salon des Artistes Francais, and he was awarded a salon prize. But after an attempt to win even greater recognition failed and he had tired of a life of penury, he returned to the United States.

Redmond eventually regained his confidence and soon was making a living for himself, his wife and three children by painting, though for a while he supplemented his income by working as a mime in the movies.

Influenced by French Barbizon and Impressionist masters and such American artists as George Inness, Redmond draws upon both the muted quality of tonalism and Impressionism. Traveling up and down the California coast from Marin County to Laguna Beach, he captured sun-drenched slopes ablaze with orange poppies, restful pastoral scenes, the misty, early morning fog.

“He achieved a prominent place among the best artists of California with his paintings that expressed the silence and solitude he felt” as a deaf person, writes curator Harvey Jones in the catalogue to the exhibit, organized by the Oakland Museum.

(Few people appear in Redmond’s paintings, a fact that Jones speculates also relates to the artist’s deafness.)

Redmond was particularly fond of Laguna Beach and, indeed, exhibited a work in a seminal exhibit that led to the formation in 1918 of the Laguna Beach Art Assn., the progenitor of the Laguna Art Museum. Three paintings in the current exhibit are part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Though other museums regularly offer such services, the Laguna Art Museum’s interpreter-assisted tours for the deaf are its first, said Desmarais, who confessed that they aren’t strictly an altruistic gesture.

“All museums today are trying to find ways to expand their audiences,” he said.

But the tours may be an ongoing feature, he said.

“If we get a good response to this,” he said, “there’s no question.”

“Granville Redmond” continues through Nov. 19 at the Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: $2 for adults, $1 for students and senior citizens. To make an appointment for a free docent tour with an interpreter for the hearing impaired, call the museum at (714) 494-8971.

The exhibit coincides with International Deaf Awareness Week, Saturday through Sept. 30.