Hermann Herzog and Florida

   Hermann Herzog visited Florida for the first time in 1888. His son, Herman Jr. lived in Gainesville, Florida, and that was the initial motivation to make the journey. 

  Herzog sojourned far beyond Gainesville, however, scouring and painting the Palmetto hummocks (also called hammocks) of the Gulf, and the waters and forests of undeveloped and untamed Florida.  He included the wildlife of these areas by painting the deer, herons, razorbacks, bears and other denizens of untouched, lush tropics. 

   An art critic for a Philadelphia newspaper at the time expressed, "No one knows better than he how to intensify the loneliness of a forest dell by the introduction of a shy deer or solitary heron."

   He continued to travel to Florida until 1910.

  Herzog completed between 200 and 250 oil paintings of Florida. The Hermann Herzog Florida Project was conceived in order to collect only the Florida paintings by Herzog, as the the art collection of Edward and Deborah Pollack features prominent paintings by artists who created glorious paintings of Florida. The project was originated by the Pollacks to focus prominent attention to Herzog's Florida paintings.

Painting of Florida by Hermann Herzog signed H. Herzog.