Sime Herrmann, 1894, printed 1895/1896

Key Set Entry

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Remarks

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).

Other Collections

A print corresponding with this photograph can also be found in the following collection(s):

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 86.XM.622.5

Inscription

by Alfred Stieglitz, on interleaving tissue, upper right, in graphite: Sime Herrmann, / 1894

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Exhibition History

2002

Alfred Stieglitz: Known and Unknown, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, June 2–September 2, 2002; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 6, 2002–January 5, 2003

Bibliography

2002

Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 110.

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