Papers regarding Erich Wolfsfeld

Erich Wolfsfeld was born into a Jewish family in Kronjanke, Posen in 1886, and was brought up in Berlin. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. Whilst still a student he received a commission from the Prussian government to make copies of the newly discovered Byzantine frescos in Asia Minor. He travelled to Egypt, North Africa and Morocco for further studies. He also spent two years in Paris and one and a half years in Rome when he won the Grand Prix de Rome. He had several successful national and international exhibitions. In 1914 he was appointed Professor at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin where he taught until 1936. In 1935 he got married to dancer, Illa Walter. Illa emigrated before Erich Wolfsfeld on a domestic servant's visa to the UK. She showed some of his works to a professor at Sheffield University who passed them on to Sheffield museum who were interested in putting on an exhibition. They managed to secure Erich Wolfsfeld a distinguished person's visa as part of the cultural quota that allowed some German Jews to come to Britain. He moved to London while Illa stayed in Sheffield. The couple got divorced before the end of the Second World War.

Soon after his arrival in the UK Erich Wolfsfeld had several successful exhibitions at art galleries in Sheffield and Derby. He also exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and took part in other exhibitions. He became an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1955. After his death in 1956 memorial exhibitions were held at Dewsbury Art Gallery and Ben Uri Art Gallery in London. His etchings and paintings are renowned for their realistic draughtsmanship and depiction of ordinary and underprivileged people.