catalog text
HERMANN GUSTAVE SIMON (GERMAN/AMERICAN, 1846-1895) FINE OIL PAINTING
"Two Deer in a Glade", signed lower right "H S '81"
Provenance: Schwarz Gallery, Philadelphia Collection XXXI, plate 14 - label retained en verso
Item # 1401VFP18PA
Capturing a scene of a buck and doe standing on the edge of a wooded thicket before a clear grassy meadow, the buck alert with as he scans the open landscape. Beneath a bright blue sky with light speckles of cloud coverage, the scene leverages the sunlight to balance sharp detail of the tree coverage and the deer against the bokey effect in the distant trees and grasses. It is signed lower right "H S 81", the back retaining a label from the Philadelphia Collection XXXI catalogue it was featured in with the Schwarz Gallery in Philadelphia. The work was professionally conserved at one point, cleaning it and backing the panel with fresh prepared panel. For serious collectors of works from Philadelphia or of sporting landscapes, this is a highly precise and crisply painted work.
Hermann Gustave Simon (alternate spelling Herman Gustav Simon), the son of a German cloth-maker, was born in Schlitz in 1846. At age two, Simon immigrated to the United States with his family, settling in Philadelphia in 1848. Even as a youth, Simon showed great interest in the arts, eventually being enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (PAFA) where he studied under Robert Wylie, George F. Bensell and Henry W. Bispham. Simon quickly became a contributing member of the Philadelphia art community, his first exhibit at PAFA in 1863 at age 17, where he exhibited again in 1876 and 1887. In 1876 he exhibited several paintings at the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1879-81 and 1884 exhibiting with the Philadelphia Society of Artists. He is most known for his fine sporting subjects and landscapes, particularly portraits and scenes of dogs. Listed in Who was Who in American Art(Falk), Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art(Philadelphia Museum of Art's 1976 Exhibition Catalogue, p. 411) and A Century of Philadelphia Artists(Schwarz), Simon's works have long been recognized as exceptional.
Measurements: [framed] W: 13 1/4" H: 15 1/4"; [panel] W: 7 5/8" H: 9 5/8"