This is a portrait of American artist Frank “Sime” Herrmann, who looks over a balcony somewhere in Europe. Taken about 1905, according to writing on the verso of the cardstock mount, it is further titled Francis in blue editors pencil at mount center, a possible indication the work was intended for publication. (The name Frank being a common diminutive for Francis) Although the photographer of this profile is unknown, the candid quality of the work might suggest it was taken by an intimate or fellow artist/photographer in Herrmann’s circle: perhaps from Munich, Germany, where he resided when it was taken.

Frank Simon Herrmann: 1866-1942

From the National Gallery of Art:

The son of a New York brewery owner, Frank Simon (“Sime”) Herrmann was a childhood friend of Stieglitz’s. He studied at City College of New York and at the Munich Academy. An amateur photographer and member of the Munich Secession, he and Stieglitz traveled together in Europe in the 1880s. He also accompanied Stieglitz and Emmy to Katwijk aan Zee in 1894. Although Herrmann did not return permanently to America until 1919, he and Stieglitz remained close throughout their lives.

In the fall of 1893 Herrmann returned briefly to America and set up a studio in his family’s house in Orange, New Jersey. He, Stieglitz, and William B. Post, all members of the Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, often photographed together. Post photographed Herrmann in this same setting, but in front of a different painting (see Swann Galleries, auction catalogue, 8 October 1991, lot 394). Post also photographed Stieglitz and Herrmann together (see The Critic, 1894, platinum print, Princeton University Art Museum, 1995-121).

The following courtesy ArtPrice.com: source: Exhibition catalog, Peter Falk: Frank S. Herrmann, A Separate Reality (Madison: Sound View Press, 1988)

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 (William-Adolphe) 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.