Baka House from the collection of Leno Family Collection

Baka House, c. 1970

Watercolor

Signature: LR Charles Grantier

Inv: 2025.35

In Storage

Venerable multidiscipline ND artist Charles Grantier. Works are in collections at UND and Mandan Historical Society. Was an important figure art education and WPA art projects, and in the development of ND's pottery industry.

Charles “Happy” Grantier (b. 1909, Williston, North Dakota) was a versatile North Dakota artist whose career spanned fine art, ceramics, and art education. A graduate of the University of North Dakota’s art program, he studied under prominent ceramicist Margaret Kelly Cable and went on to become a designer at Dickinson Clay Products Company (Dickota Pottery), later serving as state supervisor of the WPA/Federal Arts Project ceramics program from 1939–1942. Grantier also taught art and helped foster local art communities, including involvement with the Mandan Art Association. His ceramic works are held in institutional collections such as the University of North Dakota and the Mandan Historical Society Museum,
UND Scholarly Commons.

Work Significance:
Baka House is a rare example of Grantier’s work on paper. While Grantier is most frequently documented for his ceramics and pottery designs, works in watercolor, oil, and other graphic media are far less commonly cataloged in public collections and historical records, making surviving examples like this particularly notable.

Mandan History
Historical Context:
Grantier’s artistic practice was shaped by his deep engagement with North Dakota’s artistic and educational communities in the early–mid 20th century. His leadership in the WPA ceramics program places him within the broader framework of New Deal arts initiatives that supported artists and brought art to public audiences during the Great Depression era. �
ndpcs.org

Provenance & Collection Note:
Part of the Leno Family Collection, Baka House contributes to documenting the diversity of Grantier’s artistic output beyond ceramics and provides insight into his work as a painter and draughtsman. Institutional holdings of his work include pieces at the University of North Dakota Art Collections and the Mandan Historical Society Museum.

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About the artist

Charles "Happy" Grantier

American

1909-1979

Charles "Happy" Grantier was born in Williston, North Dakota, and spent his boyhood summers working the family ranch near Banks, north of Watford City. After losing his mother during his senior year of high school, he completed his schooling in Tacoma, Washington, before returning to enroll at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where he majored in art and ceramics. There he joined the studio of Margaret Kelly Cable, the pioneering ceramicist who shaped a generation of North Dakota artists.
Grantier worked across a broad range of media — painting, weaving, ceramics, watercolor, block print, chalk, and wax sculpture — but it was clay that defined his public reputation. In 1935 he joined the staff of the Dickinson Clay Products Company, contributing designs to the Dickota and Badlands Pottery lines, which drew on native western North Dakota clay and regional imagery. His "Sundog" design — evoking the ice-crystal halos visible on cold plains horizons — was among his most distinctive contributions. Exceptional pieces from this period survive in the UND Pottery Collection.
From 1939 to 1942 Grantier served as Director of the WPA Ceramics Projects for North Dakota, building a Mandan-based operation that employed eighteen workers producing functional ware for hospitals and schools statewide. A number of the craftspeople he trained went on to work in pottery independently after the program's wartime closure. His expertise in the field was further recognized through a contributor credit in the Kovels' Collector's Guide to American Art Pottery.
In the postwar decades Grantier taught in rural communities across the state — among them Mott, Crown Butte, Hay Creek, and Menoken — while continuing to work across multiple media. In 1953 he received the Citation Award, earning a place on the Honor Roll of the American Artists Professional League, and was included that year in Jessamine Stancliff Barr's North Dakota Artists, the definitive survey of the state's artistic community. He served as founding president of the Mandan Art Association (1958–59), chaired its inaugural art show, and became Mandan High School's first art teacher when the subject entered the curriculum. Beyond his own classroom, he played a central role in developing the first statewide course of study for high school art instruction in North Dakota — a contribution that shaped arts education across the state for a generation.
A dedicated collector of antiques, Grantier assembled an extensive household of early American pieces and was known for an exceptional collection of fish-pattern dishware and glassware.
Grantier died on February 6, 1979, and is buried alongside his wife Minnie in Union Cemetery, Mandan. His painted works are rare in collections; the Leno Family Collection in Fargo, ND, holds one known watercolor.