pdf - Schwarz Gallery

23
Herman Herzog
(American, born Germany, 1832–1932)
In the Woods
Oil on canvas, 27 x 22 inches
Signed at lower right “H. Herzog”
Note: This painting retains what appears to be its original frame.
For most of his very long—eighty-five years—and productive career travel was Herman Herzog’s greatest inspiration. Born in
Bremen, Germany, Herzog entered the Düsseldorf Academy at the age of seventeen; Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910) was
the teacher who had the most lasting impact on his painting style. Another teacher was the Norwegian artist Hans Frederick
Gude (1825–1903), who encouraged his young student to visit Norway. Herzog’s 1855 visit to that country awakened him
to the sublime and wild aspects of nature. He exhibited widely on the continent, winning awards in Paris, Liège, and Brussels.
Disturbed by the political situation in Germany, Herzog immigrated to the United States sometime in the late 1860s or
early 1870s, settling in West Philadelphia, where he and his wife raised two sons. Even before his arrival, his paintings had
been shown in several of the annual exhibitions of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he
continued to show through 1880.
Herzog’s first recorded American sketching trip took him through the Northeast in 1871. Trips like this one were an
important aspect of his art, for it was his practice to refer back to his travel sketches, including those from his European
years, throughout his career. Herzog traveled widely in the United States and was inspired by the great variety of scenery,
painting many views of the Pennsylvania countryside, the West—especially its National Parks, eastern coastal views as far
north as Maine, and lush landscapes in Florida, where he often visited his son between the mid-1890s and about 1910.
Herzog’s work was well received, and his profitable investment of the income from the sale of his paintings allowed him to
stop selling his art, which remained largely in his family’s possession. The Schwarz Gallery has been collecting paintings by
Herzog for years, and in December 1979 published a catalogue devoted to his work: Herman Herzog (1832–1932). The
Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, held a major Herzog exhibition in 1992; the exhibition
catalogue, American Paintings of Herman Herzog, includes an essay by Donald S. Lewis, Jr.