Project title
Erna Schmidt-Caroll
Object description

* 30 October 1896 in Berlin; † 16 April 1964 in Munich
 
German paintress and graphic artist
 
In the 1920s and early 1930, Erna Schmidt-Caroll portrays the seemingly carefree life in metropolitan Berlin. Her critical view and her artistic hand are comparable to the working methods of Jeanne Mammen, George Grosz and Otto Dix. From 1933 on, the artist concentrates upon the portrayal of landscapes.
 
Erna Schmidt-Caroll studies from 1914 to 1916 at the Breslau art academy. In 1917 she continues her education at the teaching institute of the Berlin museum of arts and crafts, where she finally is a master-class student of Emil Orlik. In the following years she works as a fashion designer and illustrator. From October 1922 on, she teaches at the renowned private Reimann-Schule in Berlin. In the years from 1929 to 1931, her works are represented at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. From 1930 to 1933, Erna Schmidt-Caroll is a member of the Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen and takes part their group exhibitions. When after the seizure of power by the National Socialists the Reimann-Schule is reopened under a new name, Erna Schmidt-Caroll is allowed to continue teaching here. In 1938 the artist has her first comprehensive exhibition at the Berlin Galerie Gurlitt. After the war, Erna Schmidt-Caroll works freelance in Landshut and Munich. From 1951 to 1962 she teaches again, at first at an art college in Hanover, later at the Hamburg master school of fashion. In 1963 she moves from Hamburg to Munich. Here, she unexpectedly is given back her works from the 1920s and 1930s, works that had been found in the basement of her Berlin studio, and she signs them retrospectively. Since 1990 works by the artist were to be found in numerous exhibitions in Berlin, Marburg, Solingen, Osnabrück and Halle/Saale. In 2017, her paintings were shown together with works by Otto Dix in the exhibition "Querköpfe" in Frankfurt/ Oder. In 2019 her works were shown at the Barbican Museum London and the Belvedere in Vienna.