Hugo Erfurth

After finishing a photography apprenticeship in a Dresden studio, Hugo Erfurth (German, 1874–1948) set up his own business in 1896 when he took over a photography studio. In 1906 he established his prestigious portrait studio at Palais Lüttichau, which became a center of Dresden’s cultural life. Erfurth befriended Paul Klee and Otto Dix and photographed such artists and distinguished figures as Max Liebermann, Mary Wigmann, Lovis Corinth, and Henry van de Velde. In 1908 he was the first photographer to become a member of the Deutsche Werkbund. In 1934 he relocated to Cologne. His studio and archive there were destroyed in 1943 by a bomb attack.