"Cherry Blossoms"

Watercolor and gouache on paper by Albert Herter. Signed lower right with artist device 1895
This work was done when Albert Herter was on his honeymoon in Asia.
Sight size 12 x 18 inches. Overall in original narrow oak frame 14 x 20 inches.

Albert Herter (1871–1950) was an artist and painter. He was born in New York, New York, and studied in Paris and then in New York's Art Students League. He had come from an artistic family; before Albert was born, his father, Christian Herter, and his father's half-brother Gustave formed Herter Brothers, a prominent New York interior design and furnishings firm.

Albert Herter's paintings include Young Girl, Garden of the Hesperides, and Still Life with Flowering Dogwood and Japanese Figurines; he was commissioned to execute many portrait paintings and he created a number of civic and private murals. He married fellow artist Adele McGinnis. Their son Christian Herter became a politician, serving as governor of Massachusetts and later as Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Gift of Eternal Life

While living in Santa Barbara he wrote and produced a play called The Gift of Eternal Life, An Indo-Persian Legend, performed at the Lobero Theatre during March 20–23, 1929. He played the part of the King in the production, and designed the sets and costumes. The play was produced through the Drama Branch of the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara. In the playbill Herter acknowledged the writings of Lily Adams Beck for inspiring the Orientalist theme and "much of its imagery", and he said that he also used several lines written by Rabindranath Tagore and Ananda Coomaraswamy. The cast was made up primarily of locals.

The Creeks

Herter was the original owner of "The Creeks", the extravagant estate crowned with a Mediterranean style villa designed by Grosvenor Atterbury and built in 1899 on Georgica Pond, East Hampton. The villa contained "his and hers" artist studios so that Albert and Adele would each have their own space within which to work.

Adele Herter died at "The Creeks" in 1946; the estate was sold to Alfonso A. Ossorio in 1951 by Christian Herter after his father Albert's death in 1950. Ossorio used the house as a gallery to display art collections and worked for 20 years in the gardens landscaping with exotic conifer species in groves dotted with his brightly colored found art sculptures. He donated of "The Creeks" to the Nature Conservancy in 1975. After Ossorio's death in 1990, the property was offered for sale by his partner, dancer Ted Dragon, at the asking price of US$25M. It is now owned by Ronald Perelman.

El Mirasol

Adele and Albert Herter spent a good deal of their time in California at "El Mirasol", the grand family estate bought in 1904 in Santa Barbara where his mother Mary Miles Herter had entertained friends such as Robert Louis Stevenson's widow Fanny Vandegrift (who later retired to and died at "El Mirasol" in 1914.) The parcel comprising an entire city block contained a prominent mansion surrounded by gardens. Adele and Albert undertook two major decoration efforts at the estate: the first at the mansion's initial outfitting in 1909 which incorporated earlier Herter Brothers furnishings, new Tiffany lamps designed by Albert Herter, original wall hangings and works of art by both Albert and Adele as well as by other California artists. Following the death of Albert's mother in 1913, the estate received a new round of renovation in 1914 with its conversion into "El Mirasol Hotel"; Herter expanded the mansion and added 15 luxurious bungalows around the gardens.Montecito Journal. Hattie Beresford, , January 11, 2007. The hotel was famed not only for its balanced design and private tranquility but for its wealthy guests including the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, the Guggenheims, and the heirs of Charles Crocker, J. P. Morgan and Philip Danforth Armour. In 1920, Herter sold the property to Frederick C. Clift, the hotelier and attorney from the Sierras. After the 1920s, times were hard on the hotel. Under different owners it settled into primarily a retirement home for the wealthy elderly. Herter himself died at "El Mirasol" in 1950.