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Highlights

Hermann Ottomar Herzog

19th Century Fine Art Legacy

Hermann Ottomar Herzog (German-American 1832 - 1932)

"He came among us as a successful painter of the most picturesque scenery of Europe—Norwegian fiords, the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea, the wild peaks and peaceful valleys of the Hartz, the glacial passes of the Alps, yet recognized fields of equal inspiration and as worthy his highest powers in the neighborhood of Lake George and the region of the Delaware. He is often said to have done more than any living man to acquaint the world with the peculiar beauty of the Norwegian scenery and he now performs the same office for the country about the headwaters of the Delaware. These paintings [at the Philadelphia Society of Artists] introduce Dingman’s creek, Adam’s brook, &c., to the world, and the homely names of High Falls, Fulmer Falls, Otter Camp, Conesbaugh Falls, Silver Lake Road, Shady Glen, Van Etter’s Peak, Log Tavern Pond, Daraugh’s Mill, and the rest, will be treasured through long years to come as images of beauty by people who, but for Hermann Herzog, would, perhaps, never have heard them spoken." [1].

Hermann Herzog was born in the Free Hanseatic State of Bremen (Germany) in 1832. As a teenager he sold his paintings to help his family; however, regardless of his natural ability, his family were not keen on his becoming an artist.  Nonetheless, in 1850, he traveled to Dusseldorf and enrolled in the Dusseldorf Academy. At the academy Herzog studied under Wilhelm Schirmer, and Karl Lessing. He also took private lessons from Carl Friedrich Lessing, Andreas Achenbach and Norwegian artist Hans Fredrick Gude. These latter two artists, provided Herzog the foundation upon which he built his future career, by encouraging him to execute his landscapes en plein air and being true to nature [2].  During his studies in Dusseldorf, Herzog traveled to Bavaria, Belgium, Holland, and Norway.

Herzog was unknown in the United States until c. 1859, when he met American landscape painter/author/art advisor John Robinson Tait who was visiting Dusseldorf and the two men became friends. Tait persuaded the Philadelphia luxury department store Bailey and Company (later Baily, Banks and Biddle) to include art and entered into an agreement to be the dealer in the works of Hermann Herzog in the United States [3]. This opened new opportunities for Herzog in the United States.  Philadelphia and Pittsburgh notables, among others, purchased his paintings and lent them to exhibitions across the United States, further exposing his talent to a broader public. Venues included New York Artists’ Fund Society (1862); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1863-69); Metropolitan Sanitary Fair (New York, 1864); Great Central Fair (Philadelphia, 1864); Pittsburgh Sanitary Fair (1864); St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Exposition (1867) [4]. This was before Herzog had yet to step foot in the United States!

By the time he immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1871, Herzog had already established his reputation in Europe, having received the patronage of Queen Victoria of England, the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and the Countess of Flanders. The "famous German artist" became U.S. citizen in 1876 and made Philadelphia his home [5].

He made his first trip to the American West in the 1870s, which included visits to Yosemite. Subsequent western trips included Los Angeles and the Coronado Islands. [6]. He received an "excellence in landscape painting" award in 1877 from the Philadelphia Centennial Fine Arts Commission for his painting of Sentinel Rock in Yosemite [7]. Herzog was also drawn to Dingman’s Ferry in the scenic Delaware Water Gap, where he and a group of Pennsylvania artists that included Frederick Waugh, Carl Weber, William Trost Richards, John R. Tait, and Herman Simon, started an art colony in the 1880s [8].

In the 1870s, New York art dealer M. Knoedler & Company, began handling Herzog’s paintings also. and attracted additional affluent art collectors who, like the earlier American collectors, lent them to exhibitions that included the Brooklyn Art Association (1872); Yale School of Fine Arts (1874); Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (1872); Union League Club of Philadelphia (1871, 1873); Metropolitan Museum of Art (1876); Chicago Academy of Design (1876); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1876, 1877); Cincinnati Industrial Exposition (1872, 1873, 1874); and the Chicago Industrial Exposition (1873, 1874) [9].

Herzog was a prolific painter. He painted quickly and accurately, infusing his landscapes with luminous light. His paintings capture a sense of grandeur with a touch of the sublime. His landscapes rivaled any of the Hudson River School artists, although Herzog was not as well-known at that time. Most unknown today are his Florida paintings done in the 1890s and early 20th century, while visiting his oldest son, a chemist, who lived in Gainesville, Florida. Traveling to areas inaccessible except by hunters, Herzog caught on his canvases, in vibrant light and color, the exotic vegetation seen by few. Early photographs may have hiked to these areas, but their black and white photographs cannot compare to the vibrant "living color" of Herzog’s landscapes.

Herzog’s younger son, Lewis, was also an artist, and Herzog would visit him as his summer home on Crabtree Point on the Island of North Haven, Maine. There Herzog would paint coastal scenes until 1927 {10].

Herzog did not like to exhibit his paintings himself, but sold his paintings directly to collectors through art dealers such as Davis & Harvey (Philadelphia), M. Knoedler (NYC) and Baily & Company (Philadelphia). His paintings sold well and that with his investment in stock of the Pennsylvania Railroad left him quite well off. Herzog’s one rare exhibit was with his son Lewis in a joint show held at the Ferargil Galleries in New York, in, 1931. Three months after the show, he died at his home Philadelphia, just shy of this 100th birthday [11].

References

[1] Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 1885, pg.7.

[2] Pollack, Edward and Pollack, Deborah, 2022, Hermann Herzog: His Remarkable Life, Unrivaled Florida Work and Rightful Place in American Art History, Blue heron Press, Palm Beach, FL.

[3] ibid.

[4] ibid.

[5] ibid.

[6] ibid.

[7] Hughes, Edan, 1986, Artists in California, 1786-1940, Hughes Publishing Company, San Francisco.

[8] Pollack, Edward and Pollack, Deborah, 2022, Hermann Herzog: His Remarkable Life, Unrivaled Florida Work and Rightful Place in American Art History, Blue heron Press, Palm Beach, FL.

[9] ibid.

[10] ibid.

[11] ibid.

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