Albert Herter

Infobox Artist
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name = Albert Herter

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caption = Albert Herter
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birthdate = 1871
location = New York, New York
deathdate = 1950
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nationality = American
field = Painting
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Albert Herter (1871-1950) was an artist and painter. He was born in New York, New York, and studied in Paris and then in New York's Art Students League. He had come from an artistic family; before Albert was born, his father, Christian Herter, and his father's half-brother Gustave formed Herter Brothers, a prominent New York interior design and furnishings firm.

Albert Herter's paintings include "Young Girl", "Garden of the Hesperides", and "Still Life with Flowering Dogwood and Japanese Figurines"; he was commissioned to execute many portrait paintings and he created a number of civic and private murals. He married fellow artist Adele McGinnis. Their son Christian Herter became a famous politician, rising to Governor of Massachusetts and then Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Creeks

Herter was the original owner of "The Creeks", the extravagant 60 acre estate crowned with a Mediterranean style villa designed by Grosvenor Atterbury and built in 1899 on Georgica Pond, East Hampton. The villa contained "his and hers" artist studios so that Albert and Adele would each have their own space within which to work.

Adele Herter died at "The Creeks" in 1946; the estate was sold to Alfonso A. Ossorio in 1951 by Christian Herter after his father Albert's death in 1950. Ossorio used the house as a gallery to display art collections and worked for 20 years in the gardens landscaping with exotic conifer species in groves dotted with his brightly-colored found art sculptures. He donated four acres of "The Creeks" to the Nature Conservancy in 1975. After Ossorio's death in 1990, the property was offered for sale by his partner, dancer Ted Dragon, at the asking price of US$25M. It is now owned by Ronald Perelman.

Career growth

In 1909, Herter was paid US$10,000 by Board of Regents of the Colorado Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to paint for the Denver Auditorium what was said to be the world's largest theater backdrop. The flat curtain was 35 feet (11 m) high and 60 feet (18 m) wide; the illustration was an allegory of Independence including historical figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

That same year, Herter incorporated Herter Looms in New York, a tapestry design and manufacturing firm that was, in a sense, successor to Herter Brothers which had closed its doors in 1906.

El Mirasol

Adele and Albert Herter spent a good deal of their time in California at "El Mirasol", the grand family estate bought in 1904 in Santa Barbara where his mother Mary Miles Herter had entertained friends such as Robert Louis Stevenson's widow Fanny Vandegrift (who later retired to and passed away at "El Mirasol" in 1914.) The convert|4.6|acre|m2|sing=on parcel comprising an entire city block contained a prominent mansion surrounded by gardens. Adele and Albert undertook two major decoration efforts at the estate: the first at the mansion's initial outfitting in 1909 which incorporated earlier Herter Brothers furnishings, new Tiffany lamps designed by Albert Herter, original wall hangings and works of art by both Albert and Adele as well as by other California artists. Following the death of Albert's mother in 1913, the estate received a new round of renovation in 1914 with its conversion into "El Mirasol Hotel"; Herter expanded the mansion and added 15 luxurious bungalows around the gardens. The hotel was famed not only for its balanced design and private tranquility but for its wealthy guests including the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, the Guggenheims, and the heirs of Charles Crocker, J. P. Morgan and Philip Danforth Armour. In 1920, Herter sold the property to Frederick C. Clift, the hotelier and attorney from the Sierras. After the 1920s, times were hard on the hotel. Under different owners it settled into primarily a retirement home for the wealthy elderly. Herter himself died at "El Mirasol" in 1951.

Two attic fires damaged the west wing of the mansion in 1966. Rather than repairing it, two consecutive owners tried in vain to build high-rise shopping on the lot; the buildings and gardens were bulldozed and cleared but neighbors and a citizen's committee fought successfully against city approval of high-rise plans. The block sat empty for a few years while the Santa Barbara Museum of Art considered building a main gallery there. In December 1975 the parcel was quietly bought by Santa Barbara resident Alice Keck Park who immediately donated it to the city of Santa Barbara to become an urban park in perpetuity: Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens.

Murals

* "The Pageant of Nations" (1913) - seven murals adorning The Mural Room at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Included a portrait of Gertrude Atherton posing as "California". The Mural Room was torn down and remade as a larger lobby and front desk area during hotel expansion in 1971. The Herter murals were taken down and placed in storage.
* "An Allegory of Education" and "Fundamental Orders 1638-1639" in the Connecticut Supreme Court at Hartford (1913) painted on canvas at Herter's studio at "The Creeks" on Long Island, New York, taken to Hartford and affixed to wall and ceiling with white lead.
* four murals at the Wisconsin State Capitol at Madison (1915)
* "Le Départ des poilus, août 1914" given to the people of France after World War I in which Albert Herter lost a son
* "Prometheus" in the Great Hall and "Lincoln" in the Board Room at the National Academy of Sciences (1924)
* eight murals at the Los Angeles Public Library (1928) [ [http://www.publicartinla.com/LAPL/herter.html Herter murals at L.A. Public Library] ]
* in the Warner Brothers Hollywood Theatre (1928) (murals have since been taken down)
* in the portico of The Society of Four Arts Library in Palm Beach, Florida [ [http://shinyshots.palmbeachdailynews.com/pages/photo_page.php?mm=1495861&gallery=296299 Shiny Shots: Palm Beach. Photo of Herter portico mural] ]
* five mural-sized paintings "Milestones on the Road to Freedom in Massachusetts" (1942) House of Representatives, Massachusetts State House, Boston

External links and references

* [http://www.lamurals.org/MuralistPages/Herter.html Muralist Index]
* [http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/pubart/LAPL/herter.html California History Murals]
* [http://www.herterart.com/ House of Herter]
* [http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ABOUT_building_boardroom Herter's Lincoln Mural at the National Academy of Sciences]
* [http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2007/08/a_lessknown_her_1.html 2blowhards.com: "A Less-Known Herter"; post by Donald Pittenger August 2 2007]
* [http://santabarbaravintagephoto.com/EM/thumb.html vintage photos of "El Mirasol"]
* [http://www.montecitojournal.net/archive/13/2/651/ Montecito Journal. Hattie Beresford. "The Way It Was: Full Circle: The Story of El Mirasol"]
* [http://www.fontworld.com/HerterHouse/albertherter.html The House of Herter Art: Albert and Adele Herter]