SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Fernand Herbo, a French painter born in 1905 and who died in 1995, devoted a significant part of his work to maritime and river subjects, boats and ports. Water and port atmospheres run through his work, described in a biographical note as powerful and imbued with dark colours. His output is estimated at more than a thousand works, mainly oil paintings and watercolours.
Attracted to drawing from an early age, he turned away from the railway career envisaged by his father, who was himself a railway worker. In his youth in Montmartre, he created posters as well as sets for theatre and cinema. There he associated, among others, with the painters Maurice de Vlaminck and Othon Friesz. In 1944, he was appointed painter of the French Navy. In 1952, he opened the Bar des artistes in Honfleur with his wife Micheline, decorated its ceiling and set up his studio above it.
Herbo took part in the Salon des indépendants in Paris, notably in 1931 and 1950, and was then included in the Salon de la Marine at the Musée national de la Marine in 1962. A solo exhibition was devoted to him at the Bruno Martin-Caille gallery in Paris in May 1970. Le quai de Jemmapes, an oil on canvas dated 1942, was acquired by the State in 1945 and assigned to the Musée national d’art moderne in Paris. The Musée Eugène-Boudin in Honfleur holds twenty-three paintings by the artist, including Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (1942) and Les roulottes à Aubervilliers (1970). The Louvre holds, on loan from the Centre national des arts plastiques, Saint-Nazaire, le port, an oil on canvas dated circa 1946. The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds four of his lithographs, including Neige sur Pernety (1972), Barneville-Carteret (1975) and Gros temps à Goury (Cotentin) (1975).
This profile brings together identity references for Fernand Herbo and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
2 references are documented at Dobiaschofsky. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.
Mixed media on paper
Sommerliche Kanalpartie mit Fischerbooten.
Mischtechnik auf Papier
Date to be documented
Published result : 2000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 3000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Ink and watercolour
Honfleur.
Tusche und Aquarell
Date to be documented
Published result : 1000 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 1500
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19
