Random Inspiration: Albert Herter (1871-1950)

On March 2, 1871, Albert Herter was born into the family which held the enviable position of being the interior designers to the wealthy and elite of America's Gilded Age. His father, Christian Augustus Herter, was one of the famous Herter Brothers, a duo of talented craftsmen and cabinet makers who were amongst the first to design and construct entire residences built around a particular aesthetic style. Despite his financial and societal success in the decorating field, Christian Augustus had always wanted to be an artist, and ten years after Albert's birth, he left the family business in New York City to study art in Paris. Sadly, Christian died a year later from tuberculosis, which left the young Albert to carry on his father's dream of becoming a professional painter.

Albert began his studies at a young age, and devoted many years to his painting before embarking on his professional career. In New York City, he enrolled at the Art Students' League, where he studied under American portraitist, James Carroll Beckwith. Beckwith, like fellow portraitist John Singer Sargent, had studied in France under Carouls Duran, and the allure of Paris, which held such a strong influence on all young, American artists, eventually drew Herter to its academies as well. Leaving New York, Herter enrolled in the Académie Julian, studying under Jean-Pierre Laurens, son of Jean-Paul Laurens, the latter being the same artist who had taught Albert's own father, Christian.

While in Paris, Albert met fellow-student, Adele McGinnis, the daughter of a prominent American banker. After completing their training in Paris, the two wed, combining their substantial family inheritances, which thus allowed the pair to travel frequently, and devote much time to their art without fear of financial difficulties. It was not long before Albert, with this freedom to create, became a well-known artist.

Herter and his wife were sophisticates who easily moved in the circles of America's wealthiest families, for several of whom the Herter Brothers had previously designed furniture and living spaces. In 1899, using his inheritance, Albert had built for himself and his wife "The Creeks," a Mediterranean-style villa with "his" and "hers" art studios, situated on a sixty acre parcel of land in the East Hamptons. "The Creeks" soon became the couple's summer home, however, as they spent the majority of the year instead at the Herter family estate, "El Mirasol," in Santa Barbara, California. "El Mirasol" which Herter expanded and converted into a hotel in 1914, became famous for hosting America's elite, including such families as the Crockers, Morgans, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Guggenheims.

During his professional career, Herter explored several arenas within the arts. He began by teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1896, and then moved onto illustration, where his work was at times considered to be a cross between that of N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish. With his connections to society, it also became quite easy for Herter to move into portraiture, where he executed commissions for high society on both coasts. It was in his greatest endeavor, however, mural-making, where Herter achieved his highest acclaim, succeeding in a field, which, though prestigious, often bankrupted the artists accepting the projects.

Herter's most famous murals where both dedicated to his sons. His first, Le Départ des Poilus, Août 1914 (1926), was given to the people of France after World War I, and is in memory of the son which was killed during the fighting. It hangs in Gare de l'Est in Paris, one of the largest railway stations in France, and which acted as a significant point of departure for soldiers heading for the Western Front. The other famous commission, five paintings on the subject Milestones on the Road to Freedom in Massachusetts (1942), hangs in the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts State House, Boston. These murals are dedicated to the artist's son, Christian, who became Governor of Massachusetts and later, Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

After Adele's death in 1946, Herter moved into the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan, but continued to make visits to his property in the Hamptons, and to his family's former estate in Santa Barbara, which had by then been converted to a retirement home for the wealthy under a new owner. It was while staying at the former "El Mirasol" that Albert Herter himself passed away in 1950, aged 79.