Hermann Herzog (Nov. 1832- Feb. 1932)

Hermann Ottomar Herzog was born in the city of Bremen, Germany, on November 16, 1832. By 1850 he had enrolled in the Düsseldorf Academy, where he received classroom instruction from J.W. Schirmer and Rudolph Wiegmann, and private lessons with Andreas Achenbach, C. F. Lessing, and the Norwegian artist, Hans Gude. Studying and revering nature in the Düsseldorf tradition, Herzog painted throughout Europe; for instance, in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and Norway. By the mid 1850s he had established a reputation as a fine artist, with patrons including Queen Victoria and Grand Duke Alexander of Russia.   Establishing a studio and home in Grafenberg, Düsseldorf, in the latter 1850s, Herzog continued his success there and became a sought after teacher, with such pupils as Henry Farny in 1868.

On March 3, 1864 Herzog married (Anna Gertrud) Hermine Brandt. The couple subsequently had two sons— Johann (or John) Robert Emil Hermann (later called Herman Jr.), born on January 4, 1865 in Ludenberg, Düsseldorf, and Lewis Edward (Eduard) Lorenz Herzog, born on October 15, 1870, in Ludenberg as well—not in Philadelphia, as reported by many. Shortly after Lewis’s birth, Herzog made the decision to emigrate, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1871—not in the 1860s and not in New Jersey as others have claimed. On August 14 of that year, he declared his intent for naturalization at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

While based in Philadelphia and before becoming an American citizen, Herzog traveled and painted extensively throughout the Northeast and from the spring of 1873 to 1874, the American West. Art halls, including the National Academy of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, displayed Herzog's paintings, largely on loan by his collectors, and he was well received by the critics of the nineteenth century. At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Herzog won an award for "excellence in landscape painting" regarding Sentinel Rock, Yosemite, California, out-medaling Albert Bierstadt, who also exhibited a Yosemite scene as well as other works of California.

Herzog became a US citizen on September 4, 1876, and after bringing his family from Europe in 1877, he, Hermine, and their sons first lived in a rented Philadelphia row house. In 1879 Herzog purchased their permanent home at 4101 Pine Street in West Philadelphia.  After his eldest son, Herman Jr. moved to Gainesville, Florida, in 1893, his father often visited him in the state. He fell so much in love with Florida’s beauty that he returned practically every winter, painting over 300 oils of its virgin terrain until around 1912. Not satisfied with merely staying in and around Gainesville, Herzog painted in the palmetto hammocks of the gulf and east coasts, and rendered the waters and forests of undeveloped and untamed interiors throughout the state.

He included the wildlife of these areas, depicting the deer, herons, razorbacks, bears and other denizens.  The Philadelphia Times reported in 1899, “M. Thomas & Sons have placed on exhibition in their galleries a large and attractive collection of paintings by Herman [sic] Herzog, which is now being viewed by many interested visitors. The collection is in many respects the most important that Mr. Herzog has shown in Philadelphia in diversity as well as in extent. The Florida series embraces the most extensive canvases and these impressions of the semi-tropical beauty of Florida are in striking contrast to the sturdy landscape[s] of Norway.”

Herzog had by then increased his net worth to over three million dollars, roughly equivalent to $100 million in 2022. Financially set for the rest of his life, but still painting as prolifically as ever, at sixty-seven Herzog withdrew from the commercial art world to paint solely for his own enjoyment. He died on February 6, 1932 at the age of ninety-nine, not 100, as generally believed. His estate included 1,000 paintings but he had sold thousands more during his remarkable career. 

For more information, please see the definitive book about Hermann Herzog, Hermann Herzog: His Remarkable Life, Unrivaled Florida Work, and Rightful Place in American Art History, by Edward Pollack and Deborah C. Pollack (Blue Heron Press, 2023).

© Edward Pollack and Deborah C. Pollack