Herman Heimlich (June 18, 1904 – November 6, 1986) was a Hungarian-born Canadian painter. He was associated with the

Jewish Painters of Montreal Jewish Painters of Montreal refers to a group of artists who depicted the social realism of Montreal during the 1930s and 1940s. First used by the media to describe participants of the annual YMHA-YWHA art exhibition, the term was popularized in t ...

Biography

Herman Heimlich was born in 1904 in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

. His father, a rabbi, emigrated to New York in 1915. Heimlich travelled extensively after studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, and spent a year with his father in the United States in the 1920s, during which time he painted a series of murals at the

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Blac ...

. Heimlich settled permanently in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

around 1930, and set up his first studio above the Jewish Public Library. That same year, he participated in his first Canadian exhibition, winning first prize. He continued to participate in exhibitions throughout the 1930s and 1940s, most notably those organized in 1937 and 1938 by the Art Association of Montreal, the forerunner of the

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Squ ...

. While Heimlich drew and painted

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

and

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

s, he favoured

portraiture A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

. He also created murals for public and private buildings in Canada and the United States, and produced illustrations for children's books. He taught at various institutions in Montreal, including the Fine Arts Department of the Saidye Bronfman Centre. Among his students were

Esther Wertheimer Esther Wertheimer (née Estera Sheps) (1926 – August 18, 2016) was a Canadian sculptor and educator. She is known for her semi-abstract figurative bronze sculptures and portrait busts in terra cotta. During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Werthei ...

Peter Whalley Peter Whalley (February 21, 1921 – September 18, 2007) was a Canadian caricaturist, cartoonist, illustrator and sculptor. Whalley was born in Brockville, Ontario, went to King's Collegiate School in Windsor, Nova Scotia until 1937, and att ...

, , , and .

Work

Heimlich's artwork is represented in a number of Canadian museum collections, including the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec ( en, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is situated in Battlefield Park and is a complex consisting of four bui ...

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery an ...

, the

Dalhousie Art Gallery The Dalhousie Arts Centre, at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, contains a number of theatres (including an outdoor rooftop theatre), Dalhousie Art Gallery, classrooms, and a sculpture garden. It remains the premier performing arts ve ...

, and the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Be ...

References

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Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heimlich, Herman 1904 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Canadian Jews 20th-century Canadian male artists 20th-century Canadian painters Painters from Montreal Canadian art educators Canadian landscape painters Canadian male painters Jewish Canadian artists Jewish painters Burials at Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, Montreal