Anton Grot

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Polish art director (1884–1974)

title: "Anton Grot" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["polish-art-directors", "1884-births", "1974-deaths", "american-production-designers", "people-from-toruń-county", "academy-award-for-technical-achievement-winners", "polish-emigrants-to-the-united-states"] description: "Polish art director (1884–1974)" topic_path: "geography/poland" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Grot" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Polish art director (1884–1974) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameAnton Grot
imageArt_director_Anton_Grot.jpg
captionGrot with design for The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
birth_nameAntoni Franciszek Groszewski
birth_date
birth_placeKelbasin, Poland
death_date
death_placeStanton, California, United States
occupationArt director
yearsactive1916-1950
::

| name = Anton Grot | image = Art_director_Anton_Grot.jpg | caption = Grot with design for The Thief of Bagdad (1924) | birth_name = Antoni Franciszek Groszewski | birth_date = | birth_place = Kelbasin, Poland | death_date = | death_place = Stanton, California, United States | occupation = Art director | yearsactive = 1916-1950 Anton Grot (18 January 1884 – 21 March 1974) was a Polish art director long active in Hollywood. He was known for his prolific output with Warner Brothers, contributing, in such films as Little Caesar (1931), and Gold Diggers of 1933 to the distinctive Warners look. According to a TCM profile, he showed a "flair for harsh realism, Expressionistic horror and ornate romantic moods alike".

Biography

He was born Antoni Franciszek Groszewski in Kiełbasin, Poland and died in Stanton, California. He studied at the Krakow art academy and at technical school in Königsberg, Germany, majoring in interior decoration, illustration, and design. He changed his name and emigrated to the U.S. in 1909.

The Lubin Company hired him to paint and design sets in 1913, in Philadelphia; and he also worked on films for Vitagraph and Pathé. At the Pathé company, he developed his innovative techniques, along with William Cameron Menzies, in the way of using continuity sketches. His method of presenting a series of sketches of all the film's sets would later become standard practice among Art Directors, particularly with Menzies (his assistant in 1917, on The Naulahka). The cinematographer Arthur Miller remembered Anton Grot: ::quote "a gifted and talented artist who made beautiful charcoal drawings...of the set before it was completed. All his compositions showed a full shot of each set, with all the delicate tones and shadings that suggested ideas for lighting and, in general, were of great help to me as a cameraman." ::

Grot arrived in Hollywood to assist Wilfred Buckland with the sets for the Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood (1922); and stayed on, to work with Cecil B. DeMille and William K. Howard. He was eventually signed by Warner Bros., as “art director, artist, and designer", and designed 80 films before his retirement in 1948. Grot collaborated with fellow émigré, director Michael Curtiz, on 15 films. Beginning with the biblical epic Noah's Ark (1928), these included Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), and Mildred Pierce (1945). Grot is credited with contributing significantly to Curtiz’ personal style.

Awards

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Svengali_(1931)_4.jpg" caption="Svengali]]'' (1931)"] ::

Grot was nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Art Direction:

He received a special Oscar in 1941 for inventing a water ripple and wave-illusion machine, first used in The Sea Hawk (1940).

Filmography

References

References

  1. "Overview for Anton Grot". Turner Classic Movies.
  2. "Anton Grot movies, photos, movie reviews, filmography, and biography - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  3. "Finding Aid for the Anton Grot Papers, 1920-1950".
  4. incEngine. "Art Directors Guild - Hall of Fame".
  5. "Anton Grot". theoscarsite.com.
  6. (2009). "NY Times: The Sea Hawk". [[The New York Times]].
  7. (2009). "NY Times: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex". [[The New York Times]].
  8. (2012). "NY Times: The Life of Emile Zola". [[The New York Times]].
  9. (2012). "NY Times: Anthony Adverse". [[The New York Times]].
  10. (2012). "NY Times: Svengali". [[The New York Times]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

polish-art-directors1884-births1974-deathsamerican-production-designerspeople-from-toruń-countyacademy-award-for-technical-achievement-winnerspolish-emigrants-to-the-united-states