In the right hand corner of the art where you typically find an artists signature, you’ll instead see two artists names listed. When added to a piece of artwork, it means the first artist listed painted their version “after” the original artist. In this case, Grant Romney Clawson recreated the work done by Julius Von Klever. Why would an artist do this? Often an artist will do this as a tribute, or at times because the original has been lost to the public, which is the case here.
Back in the day, before large format printers were available and the LDS church didn’t have many artists of the faith like they do now, the church hired Grant Clawson to paint an incredible amount of murals for them. In the old north visitors center on temple square, or the church office building (the giant piece on the east side), you’ll see some very large examples created by Grant. Those paintings were originally by Joseph Harry Anderson, but most likely, every print you’ve ever seen published or hung in a temple or church was painted by Grant. Sometimes the church wanted to adjust something in the original image, or they just needed something massive to go in a new location. Grant was called in and did an exceptional duplication job.
It is, from what we can tell, the only religious work Julius Von Klever ever created, and one of his best. The original was traced to when and where it sold, but the trail runs cold after that. Rather than continuing to reproduce poor reproductions, Grant brought back details lost through the years with his amazing skills, and breathed new life into the classic work.
Grant Romney Clawson : August 2, 1927 to July 10, 2016
Julius Von Klever : January 31, 1850 to December 24, 1924
- High quality, giclee' print
- Solid wood framed metal print (amazing luminosity!)
- Available in numerous sizes