The Prophet

The expressionist painter and printmaker Ludwig Meidner was born in Silesia and studied art in Breslau (today, Wrocław, Poland) and Paris. He was a radical exponent of expressionism and a champion of pacifism and socialism. From 1912, he produced a series of “apocalyptic landscapes” envisioning the catastrophic collapse of the German city that eerily presaged later events and, after World War I, a series of portraits of prophets. In 1939, he and his artist wife, Else, fled to England, where he was interned for a time on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. Unrecognized in Britain, he returned to Germany in 1953, while his wife remained in London.