Berthold M. Herko Collection

Berthold Martin Herko was born as Berthold Martin Herbert Cohn on October 10, 1896 in Chemnitz, Germany, the youngest child of Gustav Cohn and his wife Franziska (née Hirsch). In 1883 Gustav Cohn's elder brother, Adolf Cohn, had established a family business in linens and notions in the city of Chemnitz, which Gustav had joined in 1885. In March 1888 Adolf moved the business to the nearby town of Mittweida, where the firm expanded to sell clothing and bedding as well.

Berthold studied at the Akademie der Kunst in Berlin. He studied etching and drawing with Kaethe Kollwitz and Wilhelm Oesterle; expressionism painting under Georg Tappert (a member of the "Blaue Reiter Gruppe"); and watercolor painting under August Macke. He also studied with Walter Kurau and etching under Johanne Walter in Dresden. During World War I he painted watercolors while stationed in France and later, Russia.

As an artist he used the name Berthold M. Herko, which later became his official name. In Berlin he was featured in a one-man show in 1923 at the Reuss and Pollack Gallery, featuring etchings from Italy. In 1924-1928 he participated in group shows at the Grosse Berliner Ausstellung. In 1934 he participated in a group show at the Salon d'Autonne in Paris. While in Berlin he made portraits of many actors in Max Reinhardt's theater. He also illustrated many books as well as illustrations for the newspapers Die Welt and Mitropa. In 1935 he founded his own art school in Berlin, the Herko School, which taught his technique of painting.

On July 26, 1938 Berthold Herko married Ilse Bock from the Neukölln district of Berlin. Ilse had been born on August 24, 1912, the daughter of Paul and Ella Bock. After having been unable to pursue medical studies in Berlin due to being Jewish she met Berthold while a student at his commercial art school in Berlin, where she had been learning fashion and advertising drawing.

In 1939 or 1940 Berthold Herko left Germany with his family, leaving from the Italian port of Genoa and landing at La Guaira, Venezuela, where they first stayed. The family then moved to Caracas, where Berthold met the Swiss artist Franz Raderer. In 1940 he was part of a group show in Caracas at the Escuela del Bella Artes.

In 1941 Berthold Herko and his family came to the United States, where he resided in New York City until 1974, when he moved to the town of Yorktown Heights in Westchester County. He and his wife became American citizens in 1946. In his later years Berthold had a number of one-man shows, including two at the New York Public Library in 1965 and 1970; in 1971 at the Villa Engadine in Vulpera, Switzerland; in 1977 at the Nena Gallery in White Plains, New York; and in 1978 at the Van der Straeten Gallery in New York City's Hotel Carlyle. He participated in group shows with the Knickerbocker Artists from 1950-1957 and twice at the Sculpture House Gallery in 1966 and 1974. From 1975-1980 he also created holiday window displays at some Fifth Avenue stores in New York City.

His paintings are included in the collections of museums such as the Berlin Museum and in the Museo del Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela. Organization to which he donated his work include the New York City Public schools in 1962, Sohmer Medical in New York City in 1963, and posthumously at the Westchester Medical Center in Hawthorne, New York in 2002. Berthold M. Herko died in January 1988 in Sarasota, Florida.