On Jan. 23, 1915, readers of the Placer Herald newspaper were informed that noted portrait artist Herman Herkomer had moved to the Mt. Vernon area just outside of Auburn. Herkomer had been living in Europe but came to California to show his art in San Francisco in preparation for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition that year.
Herkomer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1862 and discovered his talent and love for painting at an early age. He studied and practiced in Europe for 31 years, exhibiting his art at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy of London before returning to the U.S. in 1915. According to the Jan. 23, 1915, Placer Herald: “After painting likenesses of many royal personages, the Bank of England directorate, etc., Mr. Herkomer tired of being an artist and sought farm life in California.”
Although he and his wife continued to live on their farm in Mt. Vernon, by 1918 he opened a winter art studio in Santa Barbara. But, most of their time was spent in the Auburn area until his death in 1935.
Herman Herkomer self portrait, c. 1895
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