Ludwig Meidner

Ludwig Meidner

(b. 1884 Bernstadt, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1939, returned to Germany 1953 – d. 1966 Darmstadt, Germany)

Portrait of a Girl, 1921 Charcoal on paper 68 x 50.5 cm Signed and dated (lower right) ‘LM 1921’ Ben Uri Collection Presented by Cyril J. Ross 1950

This drawing from Meidner’s Weimar period typifies his powerful graphic, expressionist style. In Berlin, his series of apocalyptic landscapes anticipated the First World War, and he exhibited with fellow expressionists in Hewarth Walden’s Galerie Der Sturm. Following his inclusion in the 1937 Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition, the Meidners fled to England in 1939. Interned in Liverpool, and then Hutchinson Camp, Isle of Man, amid religiously tolerant, intellectually stimulating company, Meidner petitioned to stay on. His sole exhibition in Britain was a joint show with Else at Ben Uri in 1949; he returned alone to Germany in 1953 to renewed acclaim.