4133 - Erfurth, Hugo

Erfurth, Hugo Portrait of the artist Heinrich Zille (1858–1929). 1922. Vintage large-format gelatin silver print. 59 x 39 cm. Photographer’s stamp on the reverse. Hinge-mounted along the upper edge in a mat. This unusually large print, possibly intended for exhibition, brings together two prominent figures in German art: the photographer Hugo Erfurth and the artist Heinrich Zille. Both were renowned for their perceptive depictions of people. Zille was particularly known for his drawings of working-class life in Berlin, capturing the social realities and hardships of the city’s tenement districts. Erfurth, meanwhile, established himself as one of Germany’s leading portrait photographers, celebrated for his expressive portraits of artists, intellectuals, and cultural figures, often employing the bromoil process. – Creases, some with emulsion cracking, and a few small tears along the lower edge and at the corners; traces of previous mounting on the reverse, some discoloration in the right-hand area, and a more pronounced crease in the upper right corner; otherwise, an unusually large print in good condition. Lit.: Bodo von Dewitz and Karin Schuller-Procopovici, eds. Hugo Erfurth 1874–1948: Photography Between Tradition and Modernity. Cologne: Wienand, 1992, ill. p. 370 (bromoil print).