Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

the subject of an extensive critical literature and even
of a 1927 film that showed him planning, executing,
and printing a portrait commission. Possessingstrong
organizational skills, Erfurth curated a major photo-
graphy exhibition in Dresden as early as 1904, and he
later operated an art gallery in his studio, presenting
prints and drawings by the most talented younger
German artists. Erfurth also published art criticism,
writing for example about the Scottish photographer
David Octavius Hill (1802–1870), whom Erfurth
admired for suppressing unnecessary detail in his
portraits. In 1919, he was a cofounder of an exhibit-
ing group, the Society of German Photographic
Artists (GDL), in which he played a dominant role
for 20 years. Erfurth continued to have an experi-
mental attitude, producing a series of abstract pho-
tograms in the mid-1920s.
In 1934, Erfurth relocated from Dresden to
Cologne, evidently seeking new portrait commis-
sions from that city’s business elite. Unlike many
of his artist subjects, who emigrated soon after the
advent of the Hitler government in 1933, Erfurth
remained in Germany, where he continued to accu-
mulate honors and awards. His attitude toward the
new regime is difficult to determine. Erfurth exhib-
ited and published portraits of Nazi storm trooper
(SA) soldiers that were widely noted; he had, how-
ever, occasionally portrayed military officers in uni-
form earlier in his career.
In 1943 an Allied air raid destroyed Erfurth’s Co-
logne studio and part of his photographic archives,
though not his portraits. He then moved to Gaien-
hofen am Bodensee in southernmost Germany,
where he maintained a photographic studio until
his death in 1948. In 1947, he was honored with a
large retrospective exhibition in nearby Constance,
Switzerland. His work has continued to be exhibited
widely, particularly in Germany, where it forms a
virtual history of the country’s artistic and intellec-
tual movements during Erfurth’s time.

DONALDRosenthal

Seealso:Photogram; Photography in Germany and
Austria; Pictorialism; Sander, August

Biography

Born in Halle, Germany, 14 October 1874. In Dresden,
studied painting at the Kunstakademie and photography
in the studio of Wilhelm Ho ̈ffert. Active professional
photographer, principally as a studio portraitist, from
1896 but also exhibited work in other genres. Taught
photography privately, and at the Akademie fu ̈r Buch-
gewerbe und Graphische Ku ̈nste in Leipzig, Germany’s
leading city for book publication, 1929. Curator of
Photographic Section, Internationale Kunst-Ausstel-

lung, Dresden, 1904. Operated gallery showing prints

and drawings by younger German artists in his Dresden

studio in the early 1920s. From this time, frequent con-

tacts with leading avant-garde painters; subject of por-

traits by Otto Dix and others. Published numerous

albums of his own portrait photographs and some arti-

cles about other photographers. From 1919, cofounder

and jury chairman of the Society of German Photo-

graphic Artists. Awarded bronze medal, Stuttgart,

1899; silver medal (first prize), Photographic Exhibition,

Du ̈sseldorf, 1902; achievement award, ‘‘Day of German

Handicrafts,’’ Frankfurt am Main, 1939. Relocated stu-

dio in 1934 to Cologne and in 1943 to Gaienhofen am

Bodensee; died there 14 February 1948.

Individual Exhibitions

1907 Photographische Bildnisse: Kunstsalon Emil Richter,

Dresden, Germany

1909 Einzelausstellung Hugo Erfurths: Grossherzoglichen Mu-

seums fu ̈r Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Weimar, Germany

1926 Bildnisphotographien; Palais Lu ̈ttichau, Dresden, Ger-

many

1930 Lichtbildnisse; Kunstsalon Maria Kunde, Hamburg,

Germany

1947 Bildnisse aus dem XX. Jahrhundert; Wessenberghaus,

Constance, Switzerland

1951 Photokina; Cologne, Germany

1961 Bildnisse Hugo Erfurth; Museum Folkwang, Essen,

Germany

1982 Hugo Erfurth: Between Tradition and the Avant-Garde;

International Center of Photography, New York, New

York

1986 Hugo Erfurth; Rudolf Kicken Galerie, Cologne, Germany

1989 Hugo Erfurth; Bayer-Kulturabteilung, Leverkusen,

Germany

1992 Hugo Erfurth 1874–1948; Agfa Foto-Historama,

Cologne, Germany, and traveling

Group Exhibitions

1893 Internationale Ausstellung von Amateur-Photographien;

Dresden, Germany

1899 IV Ausstellung des Su ̈ddeutschen Photographen-Vereins;

Stuttgart, Germany

1909 Internationale Photographische Ausstellung; Dresden,

Germany

1929 Film und Foto: Internationale Ausstellung des Deutschen

Werkbundes; Stuttgart, Germany, and traveling

1933 Die Kamera; Berlin, Germany

1977 Documenta 6; Kassel, Germany

1989 Photography Until Now; Museum of Modern Art, New

York, New York, and traveling

1989 On the Art of Fixing a Shadow; National Gallery of

Art, Washington, D.C., and traveling

1997 Deutsche Fotografie: Macht eines Mediums 1870–

1970 ; Kunst-und-Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik

Deutschland, Bonn, Germany

Selected Works

Genre Scene with Thuringian Peasants, 1893

Vanity (Female Nude Holding a Mirror), c. 1900

Archer (Male Nude Study), c. 1905

ERFURTH, HUGO