Erna Pinner was born into a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany in 1890. She studied at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt, as well as with Lovis Corinth in Berlin and at the Académie Ranson in Paris. After the rise of Nazism in Germany, she immigrated to London in 1935, where she became a successful illustrator of books on zoology and natural history.
Illustrator and painter Erna Pinner (née Erna Wilhelmine Pinner) was born into an upper-class and art-loving Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany in 1890. Her father, Dr Oscar Pinner, was a well-known surgeon who also had an extensive collection of modern art. She began her education as an artist at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt when she was just 16 and in 1908–10 she studied in Berlin under the prominent painter Lovis Corinth, a good friend of her father's. In 1911 Pinner moved to Paris and enrolled at the Académie Ranson, where she came into contact with artists Paul Serusier, Felix Vallotton, and Maurice Denis. In 1914 she returned to Frankfurt, working as a painter and graphic artist. Drawing and painting animals became her main interest and Pinner spent her time observing animals at the zoo and producing lively sketches. She also illustrated articles for popular scientific journals. In 1919 Pinner met the writer and co-founder of the Darmstadt Secession, Kasimir Edschmid. Their relationship lasted 16 years and they worked together on a large number of joint publications. Through him, she came into contact with the literary-artistic circle revolving around the expressionist magazine Die Dachstube (The Attic), for which she worked as an illustrator. In 1919 she became a member of the Darmstadt Secession and participated regularly in their exhibitions. In the 1920s and early 1930s, she accompanied Edschmid on a number of trips through Africa, South America, Asia and Southern Europe. Pinner’s watercolours and drawings were exhibited at Ludwig Schames’s art gallery in Frankfurt (Schames was the brother of émigré artist, Samson Shames) and at Alfred Flechtheim’s galleries in Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt. In 1931, she published the book Ich Reise Durch die Welt (I’m Travelling the World), an account of the trips she had taken with Edschmid in previous years. Most of the preliminary drawings for the illustrations in this work are held by the Jewish Museum, Frankfurt.
Following the rise of Nazism in Germany, Pinner's working opportunities were curbed because of her Jewish origins and in 1935 she was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. The same year, she settled in London with her mother, while Edschmid remained in Germany. Initially, she earned a living creating animal illustrations for greeting cards but after meeting the director of London Zoo, she began studying for a degree in natural sciences, later working as a successful illustrator of books on zoology, paleoethology and natural history. Pinner became renowned for her illustrations to Bambi's Children (1939), written by fellow émigré Felix Salten, later illustrating book jackets two further Salten animal stories. Other books followed, Animal Behaviour by J A Loeser (1940), and two volumes by the London Zoo zoologist Geoffrey Marr Vevers: Animals from A to Z (1945) and Animals of the USSR (1948); the English-language editions illustrated by Pinner were frequently reprinted. Curious Creatures (1951) was published in seven languages and the vivid descriptions and illustrations 'called for high praise' (The Irish Times, 20 October 1951, p. 6) – as well as Born Alive (1955), a further successful collaboration with Vevers and with the emigre ornithologist Ludwig Koch. In 1960 the Federal Republic of Germany awarded her the Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klass (First Class Federal Service Cross). Pinner died in London in 1987. In 2014, Pinner’s heirs donated numerous works from her estate to the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, including around 400 watercolours, drawings, and prints. Her work is also represented at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, while some of her correspondence is deposited in the German Exile Archive at the German National Library. In 2005, Barbara Weidle, in collaboration with the German Exile Archive, curated the exhibition Ich Reise Durch die Welt. Die Zeichnerin und Publizistin Erna Pinner (I Travel the World. The Illustrator and Publicist Erna Pinner).
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Erna Pinner]
Publications related to [Erna Pinner] in the Ben Uri Library