Eva Frankfurther Painting Donation

Frankfurther’s 1955 artwork, ‘Homeless: Whitechapel’, has been generously donated by a Class of 1956 alumna and her family.

Both Eva and her sister Beate also attended South Hampstead: Eva was born to a German-Jewish family in 1930s Berlin, whose family were forced to flee to London in the wake of the Nazi Party’s rise to power. She and her sister were enrolled at the school in the early 1940s, where both girls were part of the cohort evacuated to Berkhamsted during the Blitz. Upon leaving school in 1946, Eva trained at St Martin’s School of Art and keenly developed her skills as a portrait artist. During her lifetime, her art was exhibited in the likes of The East End Academy and The Whitechapel Gallery, although she never achieved immense notoriety. Throughout her life, Eva maintained a fierce commitment to humble surroundings and simple living, choosing to reside in the same run-down East End tenement room and living independently on her meagre earnings as an evening shift worker at Lyons Corner House.

Her work has posthumously seen renewed consideration and acclaim, and has been of particular interest for historians studying narratives of immigration and multiculturalism in post-war Britain. Her portraits are known for their exquisite ability to capture emotive facial expressions of their subjects, and for their empathetic interest in working-class people, ethnic minorities, the homeless, and others who were marginalised by society. A small collection of her work was held at The Ben Uri Gallery and at The Boundary Gallery in London, from which this particular painting was bought. This painting was donated by a South Hampstead alumna in honour of her friend and owner of The Boundary Gallery, Agi Katz, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 83.

With the bequest of this painting, we are able to continue the strong connection between the Frankfurther family and South Hampstead. In 2022, Beate returned to the school to speak with Junior School girls about her sister’s work, and about her own charity work within local Jewish community outreach programmes. Eva’s life and work is also remembered as part of the school’s Rings of Recognition initiative.

Read more about Eva and Beate’s lives on our Inspirational Alumnae page.