14 Facts About Hugo Erfurth

Hugo Erfurth was a German photographer known for his portraits of celebrities and cultural figures of the early twentieth century.

Hugo Erfurth grew up on his parents' farm in Schonau and visited a parish school in Niederschonal in 1883.

Hugo Erfurth's early surviving works show a commitment to the style of Pictorialism.

Hugo Erfurth made landscapes and portraits in gum bichromate or as oil pigment prints, and started to earn a reputation as a skilled photographer.

Hugo Erfurth became a member of the German Werkbund and was appointed an honorary member of the London's Royal Photographic Society and of Munich's Suddeutsche Photographen-Verein.

Hugo Erfurth married Helene Reuther in 1898 and fathered three children over the next 6 years.

Hugo Erfurth photographed for the Royal Playhouse in Dresden from 1913 to 1919.

Hugo Erfurth photographed opera and dance performers, did work in industrial photography, and experimented with photograms and photomontage.

Hugo Erfurth published art criticism, writing for example about the Scottish photographer David Octavius Hill, whom Hugo Erfurth admired for suppressing unnecessary detail in his portraits.

In 1919, Hugo Erfurth co-founded the exhibiting group Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner, which included leading German art photographers.

Hugo Erfurth played an important role in this group, chairing the jury from 1924 until 1948.

In 1934, Hugo Erfurth moved from Dresden to Cologne, establishing a studio there.

Hugo Erfurth's portraits survived, having been deposited in a safe.

Hugo Erfurth died in Gaienhofen the following year at the age of 73.