Julius Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in Neuenburg, Germany (now Nowe, Poland) in 1879 and studied in a number of European cities, including Paris and Berlin. As a cartoonist he was active in the Berlin Secession until 1933, when he was prohibited from exhibiting his work due to anti-Semitic legislation. After immigrating to England in 1939, he initially worked as a china restorer and repaired Blitz-damaged houses before establishing a private art school with his artist wife, Adèle Reifenberg, and continuing to paint and exhibit.
Painter, graphic artist, and caricaturist, Julius Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in Neuenbürg, Germany (now Nowe, Poland) on 9 July 1879. In 1900, he spent a year in Paris studying painting at the Académie Julian, during a period when Henri Matisse, a former pupil, also returned to make use of the live models. Afterwards, Rosenbaum continued his studies at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich (1901–5), in Breslau (1905–10) and under Lovis Corinth in Berlin (1911–15), where he met fellow Jewish artist Adèle Reifenberg (1893–1986), whom he married in 1930, also attending the State Art Schools in Weimar and Berlin-Schöneberg. During the First World War he served in the German army and afterwards worked as a freelance painter and graphic designer and drew cartoons for social democratic magazines, Der wahre Jacob and Vorwärts, as well as Die Werkstatt der Kunst, an artists' newsletter. He also joined the Berlin Secession, regularly exhibiting with the group. In 1921, he co-founded the Berlin chapter of the Reichswirtschaftsverband Bildender Künstler Deutschlands, an association for fine artists in the Weimar Republic. The following year, he co-founded the artists' association, Berliner Künstlerbund, and acted as chairman until the rise of Nazism in 1933 and the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation. As a result he was banned from participating in exhibitions and artists’ associations and, instead, co-founded the Jüdische Künstlerhilfe (Jewish Artists’ Aid Organisation), which helped Jewish artists to leave Germany. He also took apprenticeships in bookbinding and woodwork, and trained Jewish students in various trades to prepare them for emigration. In June 1934 Rosenbaum's work was included in the Exhibition of German-Jewish Artists' Work: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture at Parsons Gallery, London, organised by German-Jewish émigré dealer, Carl Braunschweig (later Charles Brunswick) which included 221 works by 86 artists who had been persecuted under Nazism. Rosenbaum also travelled to southern Europe regularly prior to 1938, painting colourful village and harbour scenes around Lake Garda (see Ben Uri Collection). Sadly, much of his work held in the collection of Berlin's Jewish Museum was lost during 9-10 November 1938 in the Kristallnacht pogroms or destroyed for fear of being found by the Gestapo.
In 1939, Rosenbaum and Reifenberg immigrated to London and were granted a six-month travel visa as they planned to settle in the USA. However, with the outbreak of war in September 1939, they were unable to travel. Following the introduction of mass internment for so-called ‘enemy aliens’ in June 1940, Rosenbaum was interned on the Isle of Man, but released soon afterwards due to illness. While recovering he worked at home as a porcelain and ivory restorer for art dealers and, for the rest of the war, he worked as a mechanic and in a factory, as well as painting and repairing Blitz-damaged houses. In 1942, he began giving private art lessons and co-founded an art school with Reifenberg which relocated to Oxford during the Blitz, before reopening in Belsize Park, north London. Rosenbaum and Reifenberg exhibited alongside their students as ‘the Belsize Group’. Although wartime artistic opportunities were limited, in February 1943, the couple contributed to the Artists Aid Jewry Exhibition, organised jointly by the Free German League of Culture, Austrian Centre, and Jewish Cultural Club, comprising the work of 40 artists, the majority of pieces taking inspiration from themes of Jewish life and culture. In 1944 Rosenbaum exhibited a drawing at the Ben Uri Gallery Summer Exhibition. The couple settled at 53 Primrose Gardens in Hampstead, a London neighbourhood popular with German-speaking émigrés. Rosenbaum became a naturalised British citizen in March 1948. He continued to exhibit with Ben Uri, notably in a three-person show alongside Reifenberg and Ruth Collet in 1950.
Julius Rosenbaum died suddenly on 24 August 1956 in The Hague after collapsing en route to a Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam; he was buried in England. Gabriele Tergit, his sister-in-law, and noted German émigré writer, touchingly recalled Rosenbaum in In Memory of a Refugee Artist: 'As for all Jewish artists, emigration was difficult. His versatility, his clever hands helped him to make a living (he even put glass into windows during; the blitz), enjoying the colours of London at dawn and dusk [...]' (AJR Information, October 1956). A memorial exhibition was held at Ben Uri in 1957 presenting almost one hundred oil paintings, sketches, and watercolours. In 1980 Rosenbaum's work featured in the exhibition, 20th Century German and Austrian Art at the Goethe Institute, London, marking the 75th birthday of Professor J.P. Hodin, distinguished émigré art critic and historian, who had supported many artists in exile. Rosenbaum's work has also featured in Ben Uri exhibitions this century: including The Inspiration of Decadence Dodo Rediscovered: Berlin - London (1907–1998) in 2012, Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Great Britain c. 1933–45 (2009-10), Refugees: The Lives of Others (2017) highlighting works by German refugee artists, and Finchleystrasse: German Artists in Exile in Great Britain and Beyond, 1933–45, presented at the German Embassy, London (2018). Rosenbaum's work is held in UK public collections including Ben Uri Gallery and Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Julius Rosenbaum in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Julius Rosenbaum]
Publications related to [Julius Rosenbaum] in the Ben Uri Library