Grock

"...when I was small, I had quicksilver on me, danced, played instruments, sang...
I had a great predisposition for variety shows...
and also, I made everybody laugh..."

Grock Photo

He is born in Reconvilier - Bern Canton - on 10th January 1880.
From his father, a watchmaker and amateur musician and acrobat, he learns the first rudiments of his art. Ever since he was a kid he shows his artistic vocation, setting up with his sister Jeanne a variety show that appears in hotels and clubs.
Soon enough he joins a caravan of tzigan gypsies, where he gains confidence with every kind of musical instrument (he plays fourteen instruments wonderfully and amongst these a miniature violin) and with every speciality in the circus arts.
He makes his debut in Fiame Wetzel's circus in 1894 and from 1906 to 1913 is partner with the clown Antonet, gaining favour from the public everywhere.
In 1930 he settles down in Imperia with his Italian wife Ines Ospiri.
In 1951 he creates his own mobile circus that shows in all the European cities.
He ends his circus career on 31st October 1954 in Hamburg in front of at least sixty special reporters from all the main countries in the world.
Once abandoned his circus and the music halls, he retires in his wonderful villa in Imperia and limits his appearances to some television shows in 1956.
He dies in Imperia on 14th July 1959.

His mask never let his political inclination come through; he was much more sought for by governing men than was he available to back a precise position: it is well known that the King of Italy, many Royal figures from the European States and Hitler himself, praised the work of the artist and boasted about their friendship with him, without ever being corresponded.

His life was dominated by a constant element: every act, every gesture, every idea, every passion was the extreme synthesis of man and mask worn on the face, mysterious and never fully identifiable.

Grock and Villa Bianca

During his life, the artist matured a great love for the Western Liguria Riviera and particularly for Imperia. In 1927 he bought a vast patch of uncultivated land in the "Cascine" region on a hill just facing the sea and soon enough he started the construction of a fifty-room villa, rich with marble and wonderful decorations, which he would ultimately name "Villa Bianca" after his adopted daughter. The construction, a rich mixture of Persian, Baroque, Liberty and Rococo elements, was then surrounded by a fascinating garden, also designed in a fantastic way.

Once the artist deceased, the large residence and the ample garden surrounding it with its palms, ferns and olives, became a debt because of the enormous maintenance expenses. The widow faced the situation until it was possible, for a period, and then was forced to "close the gates in order not to see the incipient aggressions of time".

Notwithstanding the numerous offers from private groups, Mrs. Wettach preferred the whole property to be bought by the Public Administration in order to preserve it for public and cultural reasons as a perpetual memory of the Artist.
In 1974 the Grock widow died and the adopted daughter, Bianca, sold the whole property in 1975, including all of her father's objects.