| Description | Includes a large ring binder of notes mixed with illustrations. The texts are in German and English, and mostly records of other German émigrés painters, draughtsmans and printmakers, which were an influence to Erich Kahn's own body of work. It contains many sketches, including dogs, portraits and nudes, mixed with texts, relating to painting theories and some small biographies concerning artists such as Jean Etienne Liotard and Peter Quast.Also includes an etching of a female nude, with sketches of faces at the back. |
| Administrative History | Kahn was born in Stuttgart, studied at the State School of Arts and Crafts, 1922-25 and later with Fernand Léger. He lived in Germany, until persecuted by the Nazis and later imprisoned in the Welzheim concentration camp. After fleeing Germany in 1939, he took refuge in the UK, where he was interned for a time at Hutchinson Camp, on the Isle of Man. Here, he met Kurt Schwitters and other interned cultural figures including the art historian, Klaus Hinrichsen who later became a champion of his work writing his biography, A Painter's Life and Times. On his release, largely neglected by the English art establishment and psychologically troubled, Kahn worked prolifically. He spent time drawing in the Maida Vale art studio of Paul Hamann, and with Hugo Dachinger and Walter Nessler all fellow German art émigrés. Although an isolated figure, Kahn enjoyed the support of the eminent art historian and art critic Professor J P Hodin and his work was exhibited in group shows at the Leger and Whitechapel galleries and commercially in solo exhibitions at the Redfern, Drian and Molton Galleries during the 1950s and 1960s. A posthumous retrospective exhibition as held at the John Denham Gallery in 1989. Works by Kahn are held by the Tate, the British Musuem, the Ben Uri and Tel Aviv Museum, Israel, whilst the Sintra Museum of Modern Art - The Berardo Collection Museum in Portugal contains the largest corpus of the artist's work. |
| Custodial History | Erich Kahn thence by descent to his widow and then given to Agi Katz |