Herman Armour Webster

A leading American architectural etcher of the early twentieth century, Herman Webster studied painting techniques under Jean Paul Laurens in Paris. Upon viewing the etchings of Charles Meryon at the Bibliotheque Nationale, however, he resolved to become an etcher. Webster's first etchings were created in France in 1904. During the following six years he developed a strong international reputation for his etched views of Paris, Marseilles, Rouen, Bruges and Frankfort. Herman Webster was a full member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, London, the Societe National des Beaux Arts, Paris, and of the National Academy of Design, New York. He was also awarded the prestigious Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by the French government in 1927. Webster returned to America in 1910 and immediately became absorbed by the new and dominant architecture of the sky-scraper. For the following twenty years he created many memorable views of streets and buildings in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Today his fine etchings are included in such major collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Library of Congress, Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Fogg Museum of Art, Cambridge. (Source: Art of the Print Gallery Website, Accessed August 24, 2004, )

Webster studied at Yale and Laurens in Paris. He was a member of the Societe Nationale Des Beaux Arts, and the Paris Art Association. He won the Legion D'Honneur and exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Royal Academy and the Salon Des Beaux Arts.