German painter, active in Russia. He moved to St Petersburg in 1743 and subsequently was appointed painter to the court of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I. He studied with his father and taught in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (academician from 1765). During his highly respected tenure at court, Grooth was commissioned to decorate the central hall of the Empress's menagerie with various likenesses of animals. He became well known for such lifelike representations - particularly his portrayals of the beloved dogs belonging to the Empress and her successor, Catherine the Great. His brother, Georg Christoph Grooth (1716-1749) was a portrait painter. //