Erna Fenkohl neé Herzer
(1882 Glogow – 1975 Berlin)
Portrait painter and woodcut printer
Gustav Fenkohl married Erna Herzer in 1914, they will have met in the artistic scene in Berlin were Gustav had studied and exhibited his paintings from 1913 on all major exhibitions. Gustav was invested chairman of the Berlin Artists Association and held many other functions until WW II.
In 1943 they were bombed out of Berlin and most of their work was destroyed in the fires. Würzburg Professor Hans-Joachim Vollrath traced many surviving paintings displaying them on his website. Sideways he was send pictures of prints by Gustav’s wife Erna who was listed as a portrait painter in Berlin. I even found another example. The couple returned to Berlin after the war.
It is hard to believe that these wonderful prints are so unknown. The square designs, the colors and the compositions are great. I presume these 6 flower and butterfly prints belonged somehow together. And could easily have been made from the back garden because flowers and butterflies are of the common type.
It is hardly possible to compare these very original prints with others but stylish, somewhere in the back of my mind is Edna Boies Hopkins (1872-1937). If she was familiar with the great Hopkins’ work I think she came very far with her art. Just as "Strong and Colorful". If she wasn’t it would be all the more extraordinary. Won’t you agree? And what to think of what has been destroyed in 1943 ?
3 prints by Edna Boies Hopkins:
These 3 pictures taken from the book by Dominique Vasseur
Prof. Vollrath's website of Gustav Fenkohl:
