Lotte Laserstein

Lotte Laserstein - Successful art studies with Erich Wolfsfeld

Lotte Laserstein was born on 28th November 1898 in Prussian Holland in the East Prussian Oberland (now Pasłęk in Poland). After the early death of her father, she received her first art lessons as a child at the private painting school run by her aunt, the painter Elsa Birnbaum. After graduating from high school in 1918, she was to have studied philosophy and art history in Berlin, but Laserstein became increasingly interested in the practical side of art, attending a school for commercial art and taking art lessons from Leo von König. She eventually began studying under Erich Wolfsfeld at the Academy of Fine Arts and was one of the first women ever to graduate with honours. Because her family's fortune was largely swallowed up by inflation, Laserstein had to finance her studies with illustrations and commercial art. In 1925, she met Traute Rose, who was to become her lifelong close friend and favourite model.

Successes in the Weimar Republic; professional ban in Nazi Germany

Lotte Laserstein was able to set up her first private studio in Berlin in 1927, where she also gave painting lessons to interested students. In the following years, the artist exhibited extensively and was also able to achieve a number of smaller successes. In 1928, for example, her painting Im Gasthaus was purchased by the city council of Berlin. At this time, Laserstein was fully integrated into the vibrant artistic life of the Weimar Republic: she was at the forefront of Berlin's women artists and developed her style into a relaxed, easy-going way of painting. She was able to open her first solo exhibition at the renowned Gurlitt Gallery in 1931. However, her steady rise to fame ended in a sudden black hole in 1933, when National Socialism came to power and excluded Jews in Germany from participation in public life almost overnight. Lotte Laserstein was also unexpectedly left with nothing, was no longer allowed to exhibit her paintings or give lessons and had to obtain her painting materials from friends in a roundabout way.

Escape to Sweden; late rediscovery shortly before her death

Lotte Laserstein no longer saw any prospects in National Socialist Germany and emigrated to Sweden. A marriage of convenience with Sven Marcus earned her Swedish citizenship, but the rescue of her mother and sister failed - her mother Meta died in Ravensbrück concentration camp, whilst her sister survived traumatised in a hiding place in Berlin. The years after the war were also difficult, both professionally and privately. However, she reconnected with her model Traute Rose, who had remained in Germany, and Traute’s husband, the writer Ernst Rose. Her paintings were shown in London together with the works of her old teacher Erich Wolfsfeld and her pupil Gottfried Meyer signaling the final breakthrough for the artist, who throughout her life had concentrated more on the inner development of people under the influence of external society and paid little attention to the dazzling world of artists full of intoxication and passions.

Lotte Laserstein died in Kalmar in Sweden on 21st January 1993.