Creator Bio
Ludwig Meidner
1884–1966
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.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
The Prophet
Shortly before World War I, Meidner was active in a circle of Berlin artists called Die Pathetiker (The Sorrowful Ones), who were early practitioners of what later came to be known as expressionism…
Primary Source
Apokalyptische Landschaft (Apocalyptic Landscape)
Apokalyptische Landschaft is one of a series of cityscapes that Ludwig Meidner painted between 1912 and 1916. He was influenced by the work of the Italian Futurists and their depictions of the…