 As a child on the way to school, Gropper used to lug bundles of his mother's piecework sewing to the sweatshops by which she was employed.At age 13, Gropper took his first art instruction at the radical Ferrer School, where he studied under George Bellows and Robert Henri.In 1913, Gropper graduated from public school, earning a medal in art and a scholarship to the National Academy of Design.