Description
ARTIST: Frank C Herbst (Pennsylvania, Illinois, Egypt, 1912 - 1970)
NAME: Illustration - Old Man and Woman
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: One puncture. Few minor scratches. No visible inpaint under UV light.
SIGHT SIZE: 20 x 24 inches / 50 x 60 cm
FRAME SIZE: 21 x 25 inches / 53 x 63 cm
SIGNATURE: lower right
SIMILAR ARTISTS: Arthur Bowen Davies, Moses Soyer, Charles Henry Gifford, Antonio Martino, Charles Herbert Woodbury, Eric Sloane, Arthur Burdett Frost, Johann Berthelsen, Raphael Soyer, James Gale Tyler, John Cuthbert Hare, Carl Philipp Weber, William Jachwak, Jerome Howes, Paul Strisik, Christopher High Shearer
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
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SKU#: 117127
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BIOGRAPHY:
Frank C. Herbst was born in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, on October 10, 1890, a son of Ignatz Herbst and Amelia Heitlinger. The 1900 Federal population census indicates that the family then lived at 152 Lafayette Street in Ward 5 of Newark in a household headed by Amelia's father Matthew Heitlinger, age 69.
A native of Germany, he had became a United States citizen in 1853. The house was located in Newark's Ironbound District, a block from the elevated mainline tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Other members of the household included daughter Amelia Herbst, born in New Jersey in August 1859; son-in-law Ignatz Herbst, age 50, who had been born in Germany but who became a U. S. citizen in 1870, and who was employed as a shipping clerk for the Central Railroad of New Jersey; grandson Frank Herbst, then age nine and attending school; and a second grandson Edward J. Herbst, who was then only five years old, having been born in January 1895.
By 1910, Ignatz had become head of the Herbst household at the same Lafayette Street address. But Frank, then age nineteen, had found employment as a silver designer, demonstrating an early aptitude for art and drawing. Silver manufacturing was then a major Newark industry. Ten years later, the family had been reduced to Amelia Herbst, then age sixty, son Edward J., age twenty-five, and son Frank C., age twenty-nine and employed as a musician. They still resided at 152 Lafayette Street in the Ironbound District. Two years later, however, the three of them moved to a suburban residence at 29 Holland Road in South Orange, Essex County, owned by Edward. He had embarked on a successful career in Newark's insurance industry. The two sons, who remained unmarried, lived at that address for the remainder of their lives. Meanwhile, Frank continued his music career, being listed as a musician in an orchestra in the 1930 U. S. Census.
On 12 June 1936, Frank Herbst applied to the U. S Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection for a Seaman's Protection Certificate. The application confirmed that he had been born in Newark on 10 October 1890, and that he resided at 29 Holland Road in South Orange. But interestingly, Herbst listed his occupation at Music Leader on the S.S. Manhattan. This very large luxury passenger liner had become the flagship of the United States Lines following its launch in 1931. Until 1939, it served on the New York to Hamburg route, followed by several others. It became a troop ship in 1941, and never returned to passenger service. As part of his Seaman's Protection application, Frank Herbst attached a photograph of himself (see below). The 1940 U. S. Census continued to list his occupation as Musician and the industry as Board Ship perhaps still serving on the prestigious S.S. Manhattan.
While enjoying his primary career as a musician, Frank Herbst was also earning a reputation as a skilled artist and illustrator. From his beginning as a silver designer by 1910 at age nineteen, he advanced to the point that he was selling illustrations as early as 1918. This particular dated work was entitled Concert Crowd. Like so many other aspiring area artists, Herbst studied at the Art Students League in New York City. A prestigious school founded in 1875, it reported in 1924 a staff of twenty-six instructors and 2,394 students. They offered a wide range of instruction in painting, drawing, illustration, sculpture, etching, lithography, composition, woodblock, and color printing, with day, evening and Saturday classes to attract a wide range of students. Tuition ranged from $52 to $120 for eight months, putting enrollment at the League within range of individuals with even modest incomes.
The commercial work turned out by Frank Herbst included magazine covers and illustrations, often for popular pulp publications such as Adventure. They included western as well as war-time themes, in addition to social scenes. At the same time, Herbst produced a significant volume of landscape and cityscape paintings in a traditional if somewhat Impressionistic style. He found art inspiration throughout the greater tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but especially around his native Newark.
A very brief biographical entry for Herbst appeared first in the 1925 edition of American Art Annual. It simply stated HERBST, FRANK C., 152 LaFayette St., Newark N. J. It went on to indicate that he was an illustrator and a member of the Society of Illustrators in New York City. This very short entry appeared without change in the 1927 edition of American Art Annual, and also in the 1931 edition discussed above, even though Herbst and his brother had moved to South Orange about 1922. The Newark address was where he had grown up.
Frank Herbst apparently did not return to his shipboard musical career following World War II. For many years thereafter, he maintained a studio in Newark, an easy commute from South Orange. His obituary noted that he exhibited his work at shows, won many top awards, and that his paintings had entered many private collections. The Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibits of the 1960s proved to be a good venue for Herbst. This semi-annual event in New York City had become an extremely popular marketplace for collectors interested in more traditional landscape painting such as Herbst produced.
In the fall exhibit of 1962, as noted in the Jersey Journal newspaper published in Jersey City:
Frank Herbst of Newark will receive a Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit award for an oil painting, Jersey Canal, which will also be a part of the traveling exhibit. He also won a fifth honorable mention in the oil section for another painting, End of Road.
The following year Herbst received a first prize in oils at the September Washington Square event. An article in the Jersey Journal article noted that his studio was then located at 643 Broad Street in Newark. Washington Square awards continued to be given to Herbst, by then in his mid-70s. In June of 1964, his painting entitled West Ninth Street received first prize in oils. A year later, the Jersey Journal announced Top Prizes in N.Y. for N.J. Artists.
The Bruce Stevenson Memorial Award, given by his widow, Ruth Rolston Stevenson, who is also an artist, will go to Frank Herbst of Newark. Winner of fourth prize in oils, the painting is called Gaylordsville, Conn. Back Yard. Another of Herbst's paintings, Grey Day, Jones Beach, won him another honor a Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit Travel Exhibit award.
The Washington Square accolades continued into 1966. At the June exhibit:
Frank Herbst, a Newark artist who has won awards in several previous shows, will receive a third prize in the oils division the Florence Kasten Award for his painting called Yacht Club.
That would prove to be the last major award accorded to this talented and prolific Newark artist, as on 11 November 1966 the Newark Star-Ledger, carried the news that “Frank C. Herbst, 76, of 29 Holland Rd., South Orange, a popular artist, died yesterday in Orange Memorial Hospital. The obituary that followed described in brief terms his artistic background and career, funeral arrangements, that he had been a resident of South Orange for forty-four years, and that he left a brother, Edward J. Herbst. It also noted that He was a member of the Musician's Union of New York and New Jersey. That should dispel any doubt that Frank C. Herbst the illustrator and Frank C. Herbst the musician was in fact the same person.
