Note 1) The following Berman biographical materials are taken from the Askart.com website:

"Biography from Jim's Of Lambertville:

Harry G. Berman was born in Philadelphia in 1900. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and also under the private tutelage of fellow Pennsylvania Impressionist painter, Fred Wagner.

Berman served with the United States Army in Europe during the First World War and after his discharge "had been regarded as one of the foremost of Philadelphia's younger painters." He exhibited frequently at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the National Academy of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts throughout the 1920’s.

He maintained a studio at Washington Square in Philadelphia, specializing primarily in landscapes. His paintings are reminiscent of works by his contemporaries, such as Fred Wagner, and early works by Antonio Martino and Edward Redfield. Berman painted in New Hope with Wagner in the 1920’s. His style employed an extremely thick impasto and a cold and fresh palette.

Berman died from pulmonary tuberculosis in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, at the age of thirty-two. This ailment was rumored to be caused from an incident during his tour of duty while overseas.

His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennsylvania State University Art Museum and numerous private and institutional collections."

Note 2) Thus, Berman’s very promising career as a Pennsylvania Impressionist was cut short, as he unfortunately died from pulmonary tuberculosis, at the age of thirty-two. As a result his working career as an artist was very brief; thus, his works are rare; hard to find; and have seldom appeared at auction. Nonetheless his artistic ability, which strongly reflects the influence of Redfield and other New Hope school artists, was well recognized during his lifetime, and his work is in the collections of the museums and other private and institutional collections, as noted in the above text, per Askart.com. This rarity factor; the high quality of Berman's Impressionist technique and sensitivities; the fact that the subject matter of this painting—ocean swimmers at the beach and in the surf-- are highly favored Impressionist subjects by other noted artists, for whom Impressionist art collectors pay larger prices, e.g., Edward Potthast, and the much larger size of this Berman painting (25 1/8" x 30 1/8"), when compared to the few somewhat dated Berman auction results listed in Askart.com. These considerations justify and require upward adjustment in the presale estimates for this rare Berman work, over the prices obtained for Berman works that appear at auction, which suggest a $4,000-$6,000 presale estimate. In this case, the presale estimate has been reasonably adjusted to $8,000-$12,000. The following Berman auction records are the two most relevant.

Title/Subject: Pennsylvania Hills Signed. Oil on canvas. 19.75 in. x 23.50 in. sold for $5,520 on 12/06/2008-12/07/2008 at Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Hillsborough, NC

Title/Subject: Winter Landscape Signed. Oil on canvas. 16 in. x 20 in. sold for $3,172 on 12/08/2002 at Samuel T. Freeman & Co, Philadelphia, PA