Adèle Reifenberg

Adèle Reifenberg

(b. 1893 Berlin, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1939 – d. 1986 London, England)

Portrait of the Artist’s Sisterin-Law Elise Reifenberg (Gabriele Tergit) Oil on canvas 46 x 36 cm Ben Uri Collection Presented by Leinster Fine Art 1991

The portrait depicts the artist’s sisterin-law, Gabriele Tergit (Dr. Elise Reifenberg, 1894–1982), a pioneering female court reporter in Berlin, celebrated for her socially critical novel about the late Weimar Republic, Käsebier erobert den Kurfürstendamm (1931). After migration, Tergit became secretary of the London PEN centre of German-language Authors Abroad. Her husband Heinz Reifenberg, was the structural engineer on the Power and Production Pavilion at the Festival of Britain and architect of Otto Schiff house. Adèle Reifenberg studied in Weimar (1911–15) under Lovis Corinth, fleeing to London with her artist husband Julius Rosenbaum in 1939, and later establishing a painting school. A joint exhibition of their work was held at Ben Uri in 1950.