Herman Armour Webster
Birth Date: April 6, 1878
Death Date: March 9, 1970
Artist Gallery
Herman Armour Webster was born in New York City on April 6, 1878. The family later moved to Chicago, where Herman Webster grew up. He then attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and The Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. Upon graduation, he sailed to Paris, where many aspiring young artists resided. Over the next two years Webster would reside happily in Paris, eventually revealing to his parents that he wanted to stay there as an artist. Webster's family was opposed to this idea. His father insisted that he instead pursue business opportunities, but after a few failed attempts, Webster was finally permitted by his father to "try it for a year" in Paris. Finally back in Paris, Webster enrolled at the Académie Julian. It was there that Webster met Donald Shaw MacLaughlan, a Canadian printmaker already established in the Parisian art scene. It was MacLaughlan who first taught Webster the ins and outs of etching. Webster’s first etchings were small studies made in and around the Village of Grez, Paris. In 1905, Webster submitted three of these etchings to the Salon de La Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts. They were accepted, and he was noticed as a rising talent. He followed these with tours of Italy, Spain, and France, accompanied by Donald Shaw MacLaughlan. Together they made scores of sketches, studies, and renderings. When he returned to Paris, Webster established himself in a studio and his reputation grew quickly. In 1910, Webster visited New York City, where he was impressed by the new skyscrapers, unknown in Paris at the time. He stayed long enough to make drawings and etchings of the city, and arranged for representation with the New York publisher and dealer Frederick Keppel & Company. By the time of his death in 1912, Webster’s father must have realized with that his son had made the correct choice of career, for Herman Webster’s reputation was well established and widely known. From 1914 to 1917 Webster served during World War I, when he was exposed to militarized gas. His eyesight was severely impaired, forcing him to abandon the detailed work of etching in favor of watercolor and ink wash painting for a period of nearly ten years. He passed away in New York in 1970.