Nicholas de Grandmaison was born in 1892 to an aristocratic family in Russia.He was descended from Russian nobility and was related to Leo Tolstoy.He studied art, music, history, languages, cartography and topography.
He immigrated to Canada in 1917, fleeing ahead of the revolution to come to the Canadian prairies.He became known as a portrait painter and was commissioned to paint many heads of corporations and their families. His favorite media were oil paint and oil pastel, generally choosing to use French sandpaper pastel paper.
His real desire was to paint the impressive looking natives that he lived in the midst of, realizing they were living a way of life that would soon disappear.In the 1930's and 1940's he began painting and sculpting the Plains Indians of Southern Alberta, with occasional forays into British Columbia and the Northern United States.His work portrays these noble people in their everyday clothing, featuring buckskin and native beadwork that would soon be replaced by blue denim and leather cowboy boots.His portraits were able to capture the strength and vitality of his sitters and holdthe attention of the viewer by his ability to capture the character of the sitter.
He received many honours during his lifetime; and was inducted into the Peigan Tribe and received the Blackfoot name of Eenuk-Sahpo'p (Little Plume).