Painter Else Meidner (née Meyer) was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Berlin, Germany on 2 September 1901. She received early encouragement from artists including Käthe Kollwitz and Max Slevogt and studied at the studios of Adolf Meyer and Arthur Lewin-Funke (1918–25) and at the School of Applied Arts and the Art Academy in Berlin, also taking drawing classes at the Studienatelier für Malerei und Plastiks, under Expressionist painter Ludwig Meidner, whom she married in 1927. She held her first solo exhibition at Berlin's Juryfreie in 1932 but following Hitler’s accession to the Chancellorship and the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation, she was only permitted to exhibit her works to a Jewish audience and the couple moved to Cologne, where Ludwig taught at a Jewish school prior to their immigration to England in 1939.
During the war, Else worked as a domestic and Ludwig was interned on the Isle of Man (1940-42). Afterwards, particularly during the war, they endured great poverty and grew apart personally and stylistically, despite a joint exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery in 1949. Else participated in numerous group exhibitions from the late 1940s onwards including exhibiting once with the Women's International Art Club (WIAC) in 1944 when she showed a painting entitled 'Lady in Fur'. In 1953 the Meidners were befriended by Czechoslovak émigré art historian Professor J. P. Hodin (1905–1995), who became an important patron of them both. Later that year, Ludwig returned to Germany, eventually to renewed acclaim, while Else remained in London, visiting him in 1963–64 when he became ill, but afterwards returning to London. She held two solo exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery in 1964 (retrospective) – opened by Hodin - and in 1972, when Hodin authored the catalogue introduction; he also presented a work by her to the Ben Uri Collection in 1989. In her last years, Meidner lived and painted in increasing isolation and failing health. Her oeuvre included nudes, portraits, self-portraits and mother-and-child groups influenced by Rembrandt, and later, more colourful expressionistic paintings.
Else Meidner died in London, England on 7 May 1987. A joint Else and Ludwig Meidner retrospective was held at Ben Uri Gallery in 2002 and her work has been included in numerous exhibitions at Ben Uri subsequently. Her work is represented in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection, the British Museum and the Tate.
