Born in Baltimore and educated at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Herman Maril was a nationally recognized artist whose prolific career spanned more than 50 years and evolved through several styles. A longtime member of the Board of Trustees of The Baltimore Museum of Art beginning in 1941, he was active on the Museum's Artists Committee, and also was the subject of a monographic exhibition in the fall of 1967. Although best known for his landscapes, Maril also produced still lifes and figure paintings throughout his career. His compositions reduce the natural world to its essence by simplifying forms to planes of color in an attempt to convey emotion without the clutter of detail. Duncan Phillips, founder of The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., was one of his supporters in the early 1930s, and Maril considered his encouragement to be the first important step toward his eventual recognition as a painter.