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".[1]
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.[2]
The Lubin Company hired him to paint and design sets in 1913, in Philadelphia;[3] 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:
"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."[4]
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