Alfred Lomnitz

Alfred Lomnitz (Lom)

(b. 1892 Hessen, Germany – immigrated to Great Britain 1933 – d. 1953 London, England)

Girl Behind Barbed Wire Watercolour on paper 36.5 x 27 cm Ben Uri Collection Presented by Cyril J. Ross

The undated Girl Behind Barbed Wire references the artist’s internment in Huyton Camp on the Isle of Man, which he described as a place where ‘every corner of the camp is a potential picture’. He also published an autobiographical account of internment entitled Never Mind, Mr. Lom (1941) – apparently the cheery goodbye of his landlady as he was led away. ‘Lom’ worked as a painter and commercial artist in Germany, a career he continued in London with support from Ben Uri’s treasurer Cyril J. Ross. Little is known of Lom’s later career which was curtailed by the onset of Parkinson’s disease.