page_title: Albert Herter
section_title: Murals
hierarchical_section_title: Albert Herter / Murals
caption_attribution_description: English: Grigsby house, music room, January 22, 1912 auction catalogue, frontispiece.
context_page_description: Albert Herter was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and interior designer. He was born in New York City, studied at the Art Students League with James Carroll Beckwith, then in Paris with Jean-Paul Laurens and Fernand Cormon.
  He came from an artistic family; his father, Christian Herter, had co-founded Herter Brothers, a prominent New York interior design and furnishings firm. Herter Brothers closed its doors in 1906, and Albert founded Herter Looms in 1909, a tapestry and textile design-and-manufacturing firm that was, in a sense, successor to his father's firm.
context_section_description: In 1909, Herter was commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution to create what was intended to be the world's largest painted theater curtain, for the Denver Auditorium. The flat curtain was 35 feet (11 m) high and 60 feet (18 m) wide. Its theme was an allegory of the United States Declaration of Independence, and included illustrations of historical figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
  He executed murals for buildings such as the Massachusetts Statehouse, the Wisconsin State Capitol, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the National Academy of Sciences.
  His best-known work, Le Départ des poilus, août 1914 (Departure of the Infantrymen, August 1914), is a mural in the Gare de Paris-Est railroad station in Paris. The Herters' elder son, Everit, volunteered to fight in World War I, and was killed in June 1918. Herter channeled his grief into this mural, which depicts soldiers leaving for war from that same railroad station. The young man at center with his arms in the air is a portrait of Everit, the woman in white at far left is a portrait of Adele Herter, and the man at far right with the bouquet of flowers is a self-portrait. Herter donated the mural to the People of France in 1926.
  Der Nibelungen (circa 1898) - six murals, music room, Emilie Grigsby House, 67th Street & Park Avenue, New York City: The murals were sold at auction for $2,500 in 1912.
  The Pageant of Nations (1913) - seven murals, The Mural Room, St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California. Included a portrait of Gertrude Atherton posing as "California." The Herter murals were taken down and placed in storage in 1971. The Mural Room was demolished during hotel expansion and remade as a larger lobby and front desk area.
  Two murals, Connecticut Supreme Court Building, Hartford. Painted on canvas at Herter's studio at "The Creeks" in East Hampton, New York, then taken to Hartford and affixed to wall and ceiling with white lead.
  An Allegory of Education (1913)
  Fundamental Orders 1638-1639 (1913)
  Four murals, Supreme Court Chamber, Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison:
  The Legionary Appeal to Caesar (1915)
  The Signing of the Magna Carta (1915)
  The Trial of Chief Oshkosh (1915)
  The Signing of the Constitution (1915)
  Two murals, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.:
  Prometheus (1924), Great Hall.
  President Lincoln Signing the Charter of the NAS (1924), Board Room.
  Le Départ des poilus, août 1914 (Departure of the Infantrymen, August 1914) (1926), Gare de Paris-Est, Paris. Given by Herter to the people of France following World War I.
  Eight murals, Children's Literature Department, Main Branch, Los Angeles Public Library:
  The Landing of Cabrillo at Catalina Island (1928)
  The Building of a Mission (1928)
  Fiesta at a Mission (1928)
  Raising the Flag at Monterey (1928)
  Finding of Gold in '49 (1928)
  Relief ship at San Diego (1928)
  Jose Gaspar de Portola (1928)
  Juan Bautista de Anza (1928)
  Warner Brothers Hollywood Theatre (1928–30), New York City. This movie palace was converted into the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1949. In 1989, it became the Times Square Church, which continues to occupy it. Herter's murals have been taken down.
  Library portico, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida (1939)
  Milestones on the Road to Freedom in Massachusetts (1942) - five mural-sized paintings, House of Representatives, Massachusetts State House, Boston
caption: Grigsby House murals, 1912.
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