Palmer, (George) Herman (1894-1946)
Born in Farmington, UT, Palmer grew up in an agricultural family yet was encouraged in his artistic pursuits. He entered Utah State Agricultural College in 1911 before leaving for New York to study at the Art Students League and then for two years with the muralist Edwin Blashfield. Owing to this background he traveled to Spain and studied with Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Palmer appears to have painted as-yet unidentified murals in New York. In 1918 he served at the US Navy’s Pelham Bay training station as a Seaman 2nd Class. Immediately after the war, he traveled to Spain as an agent of the Robert Fridenberg Gallery, New York, to purchase old engravings. While there he traveled to the Louvre and sketched extensively in Spain and North Africa. Palmer also financed his stay in Europe through illustrations for periodicals like Judge, The Elks Magazine, Colliers, and John Martin’s Book for children, along with book commissions like Hidden Heroes of the Rockies (1923)—a collection of semi-historical tales set in and around his home state of Utah. In 1922 he married Beatrice Hunter and returned to Europe the following year, enacting a somewhat different itinerary than most artists: “Most everyone has covered the galleries of Europe, but few have paid as much attention to the exhibits in the various zoos along the way as I have. My sketchbooks are full of drawings made en route. The zoo at Antwerp had perhaps the most complete collection” (Green, “Utahns”). Throughout this period of commercial work, Palmer remained focused upon his goal of becoming “the greatest painter of animals in the world” (Greene, “Childhood”). Settling in New York, he spent years sketching animals at the Bronx Zoo; he traveled throughout North America toward the same ends. His animal paintings were exhibited at places like the National Academy of Design (1921), the Art Institute of Chicago (1926), and the Brooklyn Museum (1931). A collection of his works at the Sculptors Gallery (1922) was deemed “spontaneous and reveal[ing] a respect for the subtleties of animal anatomy” (New York Tribune 19 Feb. 1922: 52). An art critic for the New York Times wrote of a show at Leonard Clayton Gallery (1934) that “There could not be a more detached or colder environment” than a zoo in which to behold wild animals. Palmer nevertheless was able to convey their individuality, “every pose inconceivable as belonging to another...filled with the inherent dignity of their indifference to all humanity” (Cary). In 1940 Palmer was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for “creative work in the graphic arts, in particular studies of wild and domesticated animals.” He served again in the military during World War II. 2 works in the National Gallery of Art. 1 work at the Brooklyn Museum. 1 work at the Chrysler Museum of Art. 1 work at State of Utah Art Collections.
Sources consulted: Elsie Green, “Utahns in New York,” Salt Lake Telegram 21 Jan. 1923: 11; Elsie Greene, “Childhood Tales Aid Utah Artist” Salt Lake Telegram 27 Aug. 1922: 10; Elisabeth Luther Cary, “Our Artists Today See Animals as Individuals,” New York Times 1 July 1934: 132.
Works in the New Deal Collection at GVCA by Herman Palmer:
