Hermann Herzog (1832-1932), Revisiting the Masterlist (Part One)

21 June 2018

Following the trail of artists long since dead presents unique challengnes. The Hudson River School and its painters best illustrate how artists once in fashion fell into utter obscurity only to be rediscovered many decades if not a full century later. Meanwhile the institional knowledge on the painters died out, thus we are left to search amongst papers and surviving records to amplify and hopefully codify. It has long been known that Herman Herzog published a master list of his works on or about the centenary of his birth, he lived to 100 years of age.

The Taylor Daily Press Tue Nov 10 1931

His so-called master list of 1,000 paintings published in 1931 by the artist, can be expanded with the discovery of an auction of his work in 1899 which boosts the known oeuvre of his work to an even larger number of some 1,220, which because of recent works having been misattributed to other artists, in an article to come shortly will prove useful. The major joy of Herzogs work has been the arcane knowledge that a number attached to the back of the canvas, usually on period linen cloth, and written in fine victorian penmanship are numbers which correspond to this artists list. Sometimes an extra set of three digit numbers confused the situation. Four of those here identified inlude #62, Lightouse and Pier, Belgium, #253 Hunters Landing Cow Creek Region of Florida, #386, Fishing Baskets, Venice and #494 Old Grsnny, Negro Settlement in Florida, which Christies correctly identified in a recent sale in 2016 but they renamed it "Southern Hardwood Swamp Scene" when it established the artists auction record of $487,500.