Biografie von Frank Simon HERRMANN (1866-1942)

Birth place: NYC

Death place: Long Branch, NJ

Addresses: NYC/Elberon, NJ

Profession: Painter

Studied: CCNY, 1883-88; Royal Acad., Munich, 1892-93; Acad. Julian & …cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris with Bouguereau & Ferrier, 1889, 1894-95.

Exhibited: Munich, Paris, Venice, during 1890s; NAD, 1891, 1896; SNBA, 1895; PAFA, 1895-97, 1939; Tannhauser Gal., Munich, 1912; SEMA & New Secession exhibs., Munich, 1910; Babcock Gal., 1927 (solo); WMAA, 1927; Salons of Am., 1924, 1929, 1934; S. Indp. A., 1927; J.B. Neumann Gal., 1932, 1935, 1936; Neumann"s New Art Circle, 1944 (memorial); Albright AG, Buffalo, 1932; Smith College Mus. Art, 1932; WFNY, 1939; Newark Mus. Art, 1939; Stendahl Art Gal., Los Angeles, 1944 (memorial exh); SAM, 1945; de Young MA, 1945; Midland Lutheran College (NE) Musbach AC, 1982; White Plains Mus. (NY), 1988 (retrospective).

Comments: Herrmann was a life-long friend of Alfred Stieglitz, with whom he attended NYC schools and college. In the 1890s, they traveled together and worked closely in Paris, Munich, and Katwyk (Holland). In Paris, Herrmann began as a highly refined academic realist under Bouguereau. In 1895, he settled in Munich and lived there for the next 24 years. From about 1895-1910, Herrmann earned a reputation in Germany for his Impressionist landscapes and was called "the tulip field painter" ó much like another expatriate, George Hitchcock. Herrmann was well known for the weekly meetings at his mansion which attracted many of the young German expressionists and intellectuals. In 1911, he and his close friend Paul Klee were founding members of the Munich secessionist group, "SEMA." In 1913, they were charter members of Kandinsky"s "New Secession" group. This period saw Herrmann turn to lyric abstraction in the post-Impressionist vein, painting largely in gouache. He was one of the few Americans living in Munich throughout World War I, but returned to New York in 1919, settling in his father"s mansion in Elberon, NJ. At age 61, Herrmann had his first U.S. solo at Babcock Galleries (NYC). Thereafter, he was represented by J.B. Neumann"s New Art Circle (NYC) who grouped him with Max Beckmann and other artists working in a style that was labeled the "New Objectivity." Herrmann was a prolific artist, producing thousands of works, but many of these were destroyed in the two World Wars. He avoided publicity and spent the last years of his life painting around his family mansion in Elberon, NJ. His daughter, Eva, was an expatriate caricaturist. Signature note: He signed consistently as "F.S. Herrmann" in cursive. Oils dated before the 1910s are rare; thereafter, he painted in gouache.

Sources: WW40; exh. cat., Falk, Frank S. Herrmann, A Separate Reality (Madison: Sound View Press, 1988); Falk, Exh. Record Series.