The Wiener Library’s summer exhibition showcases the remarkable work of German Jewish photographer Gerty (Gertrud) Simon, and features many of her original prints from the 1920s and 1930s. Simon was a once-prominent photographer who captured many important political and artistic figures in Weimar Berlin, including Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann and Albert Einstein. In the 1930s, as a refugee from Nazism in Britain, Simon rapidly re-established her studio, and portrayed many significant individuals there, such as Sir Kenneth Clark, Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Aneurin Bevan.
The Wiener Library needs help to discover the names and identities of around 70 unknown sitters who feature among the 300 or so portraits that make up the Gerty Simon collection. The portraits are available to browse on the Library’s Flickr page, where users have the ability to comment on, and suggest potential sitters. You can either leave a comment under each image, or email the Wiener Library’s Photo Archivist with “FindingGerty” in the subject line.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Jochen Hung (May 22, 2019). #FindingGerty. Weimar Studies Network. Retrieved December 4, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/vbpb