signed lower right, gilt-framed.Emile Gruppe was the son of a a man named Charles Paul Grupp? (1869-1940), a successful Canadian-born painter who was active in the Netherlands and New York. Charles served as a liason and dealer for Dutch painters in New England, and his own work is part of important collections including those of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Charles raised Emile and his other three siblings between New England and the Netherlands, and he encouraged each of them to pursue the arts, and each of them became active in the field. Emile first learned painting from his father but continued on to study painting in New York and Paris.Emile loved landscapes and waterscapes and his style can be described as post-impressionistic, meaning that he was influenced by major painters such as Cezanne, Gauguin and Monet.He lived out his adult life based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he kept his studio, was an active part of the Cape Ann School of Artists, and ran the Gloucester School of Painting.This lovely painting made with muted autumnal and wintry colors features a small grove of birch trees with their typical white bark in the foreground and the distant hills with a late-afternoon shadowy grey background--probably painted en plein air somewhere near Gloucester, Massachusetts.