Deidrich Gremke Along the Merced

(1860-1939) Painter, muralist, photographer. Born in San Francisco, CA on April 10, 1860. Dick Gremke was the son of German immigrants who had sailed to California in the early 1850s. His father was a gold miner and later a chandler for the clipper ships. The younger Gremke grew up in San Francisco and began art studies locally at the School of Design under Raymond Yelland. As well as being a fine painter, he was also an able photographer. After the earthquake in 1906, he did a series of paintings of the destruction. He specialized in watercolors and oils of the Sierra Nevada and highly detailed floral still lifes. He also painted murals for the stations of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads. Gremke remained a bachelor and lived at the family home at 544 38th Street in Oakland until his death on May 4, 1939. Exh: Oakland Industrial Expo, 1896; Mechanics Inst., 1897; Calif. State Fair, 1900-02; Oakland Art Fund, 1905; Berkeley AA, 1908; Oakland Art Gallery, 1928. In: CHS; Society of Calif. Pioneers; Oakland Museum. Oakland Museum; CD; CSL; DR.