Peter Hertz

Biography

Peter Julius Hertz (1 June 1874 in Copenhagen – 26 March 1939) was a Danish art historian and museum worker. Peter Hertz was the son of Julius Hertz (1842–1920), a wholesale merchant, and his wife Henriette F. Hertz (1850–1921). Hertz became a graduate student at a private college in 1893 and took many philosophy courses. Until 1896, he attended a technological school, while he worked as a bricklayer and learned how to be an architect. Then he began independent art historical studies and eventually went to study in 1899 on a three-year trip to Germany and Italy. In 1901, he worked in London, but he began to travel for his studies in 1903, primarily in Italy, but also in the Netherlands. During those years, he focused on Classical Architecture, obtaining a Doctorate in Philosophy. He was also interested in contemporary art in Denmark and wrote "Gennembruddet i 70'erne, Betragtninger i Anledning af Raadhusudstillingen og den Hirschsprungske Samling" ("The breakthrough in the 70s, Reflections on the occasion of Raadhusudstillingen and the Hirschsprung Collection" in Art, IV, 1902–03). In 1915, he was hired to be the curator of the Danish National Museum of Art. As his main interest began to shift more towards contemporary art, he started to advocate for it through making monographs and working on the biographies of L. A. Ring, Gerhard Henning and Kai Nielsen. Hertz served on the board of the Danish Museum of Art Association and the Association of French Arts. In 1919, Hertz founded the Association for Contemporary Art and also served as its first President. From 1934, he was a member of the Board of the Rønnenkamp'ske Grant. He was knighted into the Order of the Polar Star. His first marriage started on 16 December 1899 in Schöneberg town hall in Berlin, with pianist Karen Wellmann (born 24 September 1875) in Køng. She later married the painter Herman Vedel in 1906, and she was the daughter of doctor Carl William Wellman (1842–1885) and Mathilde Sophie Krebs (1845–1916

Bio from Wikipedia