Eugen Hersch

Eugen Hersch was born August 21, 1887. From 1905 through 1909 he studied at the Königliche akademische Hochschule für die bildenden Kunst zu Berlin. In 1910 he was awarded the first scholarship of the Michael Beerschen Stiftung for a year's study in Italy. He became noted for his portrait paintings, including one of President (then Field Marshal) Paul von Hindenburg in 1915. In 1939 Eugen Hersch left for England with his wife, where he rebuilt his career. His work was featured in exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, among other institutions. His final work was a mural composed of twelve paintings, "A Requiem to Comfort the Bereaved." Eugen Hersch died in London in 1967.

He got his training in Berlin, in the old master tradition. After graduating he won the prestigious Rome Prize in 1910 and spent 1910-12 in Italy. Returning to Berlin he established a fine career as a portrait painter, broken by a period during World War I as a war artist. President Hindenberg was one of his sitters. As life became hard for Jews in Nazi Germany, Hersch with his wife left for England in 1939. After the war he settled in London and began to reshape his career. Showed at Royal Academy, Pastel Society, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Whitechapel Art Gallery and elsewhere and completed a large mural Triptich in Blue for Wandsworth Town Hall. His final work, which took five years, is a huge mural of twelve paintings: A Requiem to Comfort the Bereaved. Hersch's work is in several public collections in Germany and he was commemorated with a major show at the John Denham Gallery, London in 1990. A retrospective held by the Berardo Foundation entitled 'Eugen Hersch: Later Life' was held in Setubal near Lisbon, Portugal in November 2004. A self-portrait was also included in the Ben Uri Gallery's exhibition 'Homeless and Hidden' in 2008.