The artist’s son Siegfried (Fred) Koelz (1923-2005), is shown against a mountain background, wearing an alpine hat with feather; on his lapel is an Edelweiss, the short-lived and beautiful mountain flower associated with alpinism. Fred Koelz…

Partly repainted in 1969. The sitter, Sheela Bonarjee recalls being approached by the artist to sit for a portrait, whilst walking on Hampstead Heath. Invited to her home, Bonarjee remembers the émigré writer and close friend of the artist, Elias…

Carl Ludwig Elias was the son of the distinguished art critic, Dr Julius Elias, who did much to promote a true understanding of French Impressionism in Germany. He was a lawyer in Berlin and emigrated to Norway when the Nazis came to power. He was…

Alternative title: The Granddaughter in the Wicker Chair Liebermann’s granddaughter was a much loved and frequent visitor to the artist’s lakeside villa. In this relaxed and unsentimental study, she is shown with her book leaning on a chair, while…

The square adjoining the City Church in Weimar is the subject of this picture. Feininger knew Weimar from pre-war visits but needed distance from location and in time for a vision to grow in his mind. His technique of the precise overlapping and…

Reconstruction, with original fragments. Johannes Koelz (1895-1971) was born in Muehldorf, Bavaria. He entered the Munich Academy of Art but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War 1. After the death of his brother Hans, killed in…

By 1939 Lotte Laserstein had been living in Sweden for two years. An émigré German lawyer, Josef Fischler had helped Laserstein with her exit visa from Germany, and this portrait of Josef’s wife Lotte was painted by way of thanks for the couple’s…

Emil Nolde (1867-1956) was born as Emil Hansen in Nolde, a town in the North of Germany. He was initially trained as a woodcarver but started to paint as an independent artist in 1898. Before he settled in 1903 in Alsen during the summer and in…

Born in Ynsddu, Gwent on June 8th, 1907 into a South Wales colliery family, Trevor Thomas showed a talent for singing as a boy, winning prizes at the Eisteddfods, and he continued to sing through most of his adult life despite being partially…

Alfred Hess (1879-1931) was a wealthy Jewish shoe manufacturer. In the 1920s Hess shoes were a byword for quality, exported all over Europe and abroad from the four large ‘M & L Hess Schuhfabrik’ factories in the town. Alfred Hess also…