His fine portrait likenesses and landscape work, garnered him a reputation as “the king of lithographers”.
Otto Lambert Grever was a prolific lithographic artist who created color posters for popular melodramas, music, and movies showing in New York theaters in the early 1900s. During his career he worked for Henderson, Donaldson, Erie, National Show Print, and Russell Morgan Lithograph Company, but worked the vast majority of his career as the chief artist at H.C. Miner Lithography Company.
Grever was alive during a time when technology was transforming both theater and printing. The development of motion pictures brought a form of entertainment that could reach a broad audience. Recent improvements in printing technology also made it possible to add color to lithography and increase the size of the printing base, revolutionizing print advertising. Grever made his career at the intersection of both innovations. Over the course of his lifetime, he would turn out hundreds of poster advertisements for the biggest names in early cinema, such as Mary Pickford and John Barrymore. His fine portrait likenesses and landscape work, garnered him a reputation as “the king of lithographers“.
Otto Lambert Grever was born in Cincinnati, Ohio May 16, 1878. His father Joseph Grever was born in Oldenburg Germany and graduated from the University of Berlin. Joseph Grever immigrated to the United States, became an instructor in languages at Hughes High School in Cincinnati, and married Miss Katherine Heemann of Cincinnati on November 13, 1876.
Otto Lambert Grever was the oldest of four children. His creative talent was recognized while he was still attending grade school and he therefore began to study at the Cincinnati Art Academy at night. After graduating from Grade School he enrolled as a full time student at Cincinnati Art Academy where he studied under Frank Duveneck and Vincent Nowottny.
At the suggestion of Mr Duveneck, he took additional private lessons in the highly specialized technique of lithography with Bertsch of Cincinnati, a private instructor in the profession.
After some study with Bertsch, Otto Grever obtained a position at the Henderson Lithography Company in Cincinnati as a non salaried apprentice in lithography and within six months was promoted to a salaried employee. After working for Henderson he worked for the Donaldson Lithographic Company in New Port, Kentucky for approximately one year.
Mr. Grever left Cincinnati for New York City to obtain better position in lithography. Unable to find a suitable position, he supported himself by doing pen sketches of prisoners and other assignments he was given by various New York newspapers. He returned to Cincinnati after some time where he worked for the Russell Morgan Company and continued to study arts at night.
Around this time, he had decided to specialize in theatrical posters. But this goal could not be attained in Cincinnati so he left for Erie Lithographic Company in Erie, Pennsylvania and eventually the National Show Print Lithographic Company in Niles, Michigan.
By this point, Mr. Grever’s skill as a theatrical poster artist had been highly developed. Therefore, in 1904, at the age of 26 he returned to New York. This time he was quickly hired by the H.C. Miner Lithographic Company as foreman and head portrait artist. Over the next 29 years, he created color posters for popular melodramas, music, and movies showing in New York theaters over the next 26 years.
Otto Lambert Grever was married to Mary Carolyn Crump of Pittsford, New York on May 3, 1917. They had four children, three daughters and a son. Unfortunately, only two daughters survived past infancy.
Like so many of the time, Grever contracted tuberculosis and departed for Phoenix, AZ in 1934. He succumbed to the disease a year later, at the age of 58. Mr Grever died at Phoenix Arizona after 2 ½ years of illness on January 20, 1936. He is buried in the Kew Gardens Cemetery on Long Island.
The legacy of Otto Grever lives on through his art. Some of his most famous posters reside in the archives of Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the City of New York. A handful of others have survived through the years but are in need of preservation and may be the only remaining posters from the production. Through continued support, these delicate posters can be professionally repaired and digitally scanned. The scanned images will be made available for download and public use.
“Upon the death of Knoeffel, the celebrated German lithographer who won renown for his reproduction of a portrait of Mark Twain, said to be the best piece of lithography ever done, Grever was acclaimed the foremost exponent of the art in the country.”
kingoflitho.org 