Eva Aldbrook

Eva Aldbrook

(Urbach, née Mehl)

(b. 1925 Hamburg, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1938 – lives in Lincolnshire, England)

Portrait of Siegmund Nissel Pencil on paper 57 x 45.3 cm Ben Uri Collection Presented by the artist 2018

Austrian violinist Siegmund Nissel was a co-founder of the Amadeus Quartet, three of whose members met during internment on the Isle of Man. Born into an assimilated Jewish family in Hamburg, Eva Aldbrook fled to the UK with her family in 1938. After training as a classical dancer (taking the name Eva Melova), she studied fashion and costume design under Muriel Pemberton at St. Martin’s School of Art, becoming a highly successful fashion illustrator in the 1950s and 1960s, celebrated for her elegant designs commissioned by fashion house Dior and publications including British Vogue, The Evening Standard and The Sunday Times before turning to portraiture.