Hans Feibusch (1889 Frankfurt, Germany – 1998 London, England)
Painter, illustrator, lithographer, muralist and sculptor Hans Feibusch was born into a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany in 1898. After serving in the First World War, he studied painting in Berlin, winning the Prix de Rome, and later the Prussian State Prize for Painting, which aroused Nazi antagonism, causing him to flee to England in 1933, where he participated in group exhibitions of Jewish artists at the Ben Uri Gallery and the Parsons Gallery, London (both 1934), held five solo exhibitions at the Lefevre Galleries, and exhibited regularly with the London Group (until 1939). His work was included in both the notorious touring Nazi 'degenerate' art show (1937) and its English riposte at the New Burlington Galleries, London (1938). Following his first public mural in England, Feibusch was championed by Dr George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester, leading to numerous Church of England commissions, including for Chichester Cathedral, and became Britain’s most prolific muralist, creating work in some 35 Anglican churches and cathedrals, among them five panels for the Stern Hall at West London Synagogue (now Ben Uri Collection). Feibusch exhibited widely including at the Royal Academy (from 1944), the Ben Uri Gallery, including solo exhibitions in 1970 and 1977, and at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester in 1995. In his later years, forced to abandon painting after his eyesight began to fail, he took up sculpture. Although he had converted to Anglicanism in the 1960s, in his later years he reverted to his Jewish faith.
