Rediscovering North Dakota Artist Charles Grantier

I recently came across an interesting water color painting in a North Dakota thrift store, signed by Charles Grantier. Among the piles of mass produced wall adornments that often clutter thrift stores, this work stood out as clearly something unique. Later, while researching Grantier, I was pleased to discover that he was a local artist who enjoyed a long, distinguished and interesting career in the state. Many Grantier ceramic and pottery items still exist in collections and come up at
times at auction, but I was unable to find any other watercolors or oil paintings
by Grantier, or mentions of his painted works held in collections or by individuals.

This painting has a label on the back that indicates it was entered in an art contest. The label titles the work “Montezuma”, a “water color” with a “$50” value. However, on the front of the painting in the lower left, he has written “Baka House” or “Boka House,” which would seem to be the name of the work. Searches for either term turned up no information. Perhaps Boka/Baka is the name of the family that lived there.

A water color painting of a rural scene. A seemingly abandoned house sits admid a rolling hill landscape.

I won’t say that I have fallen in love with this water color, but I do respect it as a part of Grantier’s legacy, and as a piece of North Dakota’s 20th century art history. Let me tell you a bit more about what I learned about Grantier and his contributions to the state of North Dakota.

Charles G. “Happy” Grantier (1909 – 1979) was born to immigrants, a North Dakota artist and teacher whose long career spanned the great depression, World War II, and beyond. According to accounts, he worked in a variety of mediums including watercolors, oil paintings, pencil sketches, block prints, hooked rugs, wax sculptures, and chalk drawings, but he is most celebrated for his work in pottery and ceramics.

Grantier’s mother died while he was a senior in high school. He briefly lived with his grandmother in Oregon to finish school, and then returned to North Dakota to attend the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks where he studied education and art. After graduation from UND, he was hired as an assistant by Margaret Kelly Cable in the UND ceramics department. Kelly would run the department for 39 years and is to this day highly regarded as an artist and educator.

By 1935, he was employed by the Dickinson Clay Products Company, a brick maker formerly known as Dickinson Fire and Pressed Brick Company, that wanted to expand into ceramics. The company’s wares were produced near Dickinson, ND, using North Dakota clays, under the Dickota Pottery and Bandlands Pottery trade labels. Despite the good quality of the products, deteriorating economic conditions of the time forced the business to close by 1937. Dickota pottery and ceramic products are highly sought by collectors. Some exceptional pieces produced under Grantier are in the UND Pottery Collection.

By 1939, Grantier became a state supervisor for the Works Project Administration (WPA), a government New Deal program to alleviate unemployment. Grantier’s program provided jobs through the Federal Arts Project (FAP), which provided jobs to artists and trained non-artists in pottery and ceramics. Eighteen people were employed in FAP under Grantier, and trained to create plates, glasses, trays, cups, bowls, and other pieces for schools and hospitals in North Dakota. Decorative objects including lamps, ashtrays, flower pots and candle holders were also produced. Though his role in WPA was dissolved in 1942 as the American involvement in World War II intensified, many of these people trained in ceramics under Grantier went on to produce pottery in North Dakota under their own names.

According to accounts, by the 1950’s, Grantier became a rural school teacher and continued to work with expressive mediums, a career that moved him all around the state. He held teaching positions in Mott, Crown
Butte, and Hay Creek, and other communities, eventually becoming principal at the school in Menoken, ND.

He reportedly received the Citation Award in 1953, which added his name to the Honor Roll of the American Artists Professional League.

Grantier became the first President of the Mandan Art Association In
1958-59, as was the first Chairman of the Mandan Art Show. He was named Mandan High School’s
first art teacher when the subject was added to its curriculum.

He expertise in art pottery was acknowledged as a contributor to The Kovel’s Collector’s Guide to American Art Pottery.

Charles Grantier apparently loved antiques and fish patterned things. In a letter published in Living for Young Homemakers magazine, January 1951, Mr. Grantier wrote a complementary letter regarding how the magazine dealt with antiques. He boasted, “Our home is dominated by a lived in group of lovely old pieces. Collectors drool at our bedroom set which was used in Phelps, New York sometime before 1840, arriving in Dakota Territory…before this was a state. Our marine dining room dominates the interest on the first floor. We have been collecting fish pattern dishware and glassware along with many other things of fish design for some time and have upwards of 1,000 pieces in the house.”

Grantier died on February 6, 1979, and is buried in Union Cemetery, Mandan, ND, with his wife Minnie. Grantier is remembered fondly by some former students. In a Facebook post in 2024, former students commented:

“I learned many wonderful techniques from him. I always felt he never got the respect he deserved.”

“He tried so hard with those of us that were terrible at art. I appreciate so many things he taught us. I have no talent and yet he encouraged me to keep trying. He was a good person.”

Rediscovering North Dakota Artist Charles Grantier

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