Eva Frankfurther

Eva Frankfurther

(b. 1930 Berlin, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1939 – d. 1959 London, England)

Stateless Person, c. 1955 Oil on paper 76 x 55 cm Private Collection

Eva Frankfurther took as her subjects those on the margins of society, conveying their inner lives with dignity and compassion. The critic Mervyn Levy observed that she was ‘greatly perturbed [...] by the predicament of the modern refugee; the politically displaced ones, homeless and stateless, who comprise one of the most profoundly tragic phenomena of our time’. Born into an assimilated Jewish family in Berlin in 1930, Frankfurther fled to England with her family in 1939, then attended St Martin’s School of Art (1946–51). Afterwards she moved to London’s East End and working evenings as a counter-hand at Lyons Corner House, Piccadilly, leaving her free to paint during the day.