Adèle Reifenberg 1893-1986

Adèle Reifenberg was born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany on 3 March1893 and studied art in her native city under Lovis Corinth and in Weimar (1911–15). Her work was widely exhibited in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s and she was highly regarded as a teacher. In 1934, her work (together with that of her artist husband, Julius Rosenbaum (whom she had married in 1930), was included in the 'Exhibition of German-Jewish Artists' Work: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture' (5-15 June 1934) organised at the Parsons Gallery, London by German-Jewish emigre dealer, Carl Braunschweig (later Charles Brunswick), which included in total 221 artworks by 86 artists suffering persecution under the Nazi regime. The couple fled to London in 1939, where exhibiting opportunities were limited during the war, but both exhibited in 1943 in the 'Artists Aid Jewry' exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, where Reifenberg's six works included a pastel entitled 'Jewish Girl Left Behind in Holland'. Postwar, in 1948, they established a successful painting school, exhibiting alongside their pupils as the 'Belsize Group'. The school closed after Rosenbaum's death in 1956 but Reifenberg continued to paint and exhibit, working in a late Impressionist manner, and showing frequently with Ben Uri Gallery, including a joint exhibition with Rosenbaum (and Ruth Collet) at Ben Uri's Portman Street Gallery in 1950, with Eric Doitch and Emmanuel Levy at Ben Uri's Berners Street Gallery in 1961, and in a solo show at Ben Uri's Dean Street Gallery in 1973. She also had a solo exhibition at the Margaret Fisher Gallery, shortly before her death in London, England on 1 April 1986. Her work is in public and private collections in Britain and Germany, including the Ben Uri Collection and the Berlin City Art Gallery. Adèle Reifenberg's nephew is the German artist Dodi Reifenberg.