German artist Theodor Groll was acclaimed for his landscapes and architectural paintings that were widely exhibited throughout Germany. Groll studied at the Berlin Academy of Arts and went on to establish himself in the city of Düsseldorf. Upon an invitation to judge the German entries at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892, Groll traveled to the United States on a journey that would ultimately become a three-year stay—in part due to his connections to Indianapolis relatives, including Frederick Herman Lieber, his uncle who owned the most important art gallery in Indianapolis.