Lotte Laserstein

With Jonathan Cooper, London;

From whom acquired by the late husband of the present owner in the 1980s.

A.-C. Krausse, Lotte Laserstein: Leben und Werk, Berlin 2006, p. 183, no. 128, reproduced in colour.

Born in Prussia in 1898, Laserstein studied painting under Erich Wolfsfeld at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts and was, for the final two years of her tuition, his 'Atelier Meisterschülerin' (star pupil), an honour which brought with it her own studio at the Academy in which to paint. She went on to win the Academy's Gold Medal in 1925. Her early drawings begin to capture the essence of the human anatomy, particularly the face, with an astonishing degree of confidence.

In 1927, she left its walls for life as a struggling artist in inflation-hit Berlin. Her first solo show was held in that city at Fritz Gurlitt's famous gallery in 1930, and in 1937 she exhibited at the Paris World Fair. That same year she was offered an exhibition at the Galleri Modern in Stockholm. Because Laserstein was of Jewish background, she made the decision to stay on in Sweden to avoid the increasing threats and constrictions of life in Germany, and earned a living by teaching painting and taking on portrait commissions. Laserstein's mother died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp; her sister, Käte, survived the war in hiding in Berlin and later joined Lotte in Sweden. Laserstein spent her later life in Kalmar in southern Sweden and died there in 1993.