Walter Herz was born into a Jewish family in Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1909 and trained as a lawyer before immigrating to England in 1939. After the war he retrained, becoming Chief Artist at Heros Publicity Studios and a noted book illustrator. He also designed the Holocaust Memorial for Leicester Synagogue and the official poster for the 1948 London Olympic Games.
Painter and illustrator Walter Herz was born into a middle class Jewish family in Naetirisch Ostrak, in the Czech part of Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1909. Alongside his studies as a lawyer, he developed a knowledge of book collecting and a talent for painting and drawing. Following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, in order to avoid Nazi persecution, he fled first to Poland, and then to London, England in the same year, where he worked as a commercial artist. In 1943 his work featured in the Allied Artists' Exhibition, held at Manchester City Art Gallery and in 1945 he held a solo exhibition at the Anglo Palestinian Club in London which included watercolours, woodcuts, linocuts, and pictures executed in gouache, pastel, and chalk. Apart from Jewish subjects, he also depicted the Blitz and VE Day celebrations. Part of the proceeds of the show were donated to the Palestinian Jewish Prisoners of War and Jewish Brigade Group Comforts and Hospitality Funds.
Herz retrained after the war, becoming Chief Artist at Heros Publicity Studios, a commercial art venture founded with Austrian refugee Victor Ross (born Victor Rosenfeld, who later became Chairman of Reader’s Digest and an author), as well as a noted book illustrator. Herz produced leaflets and fundraising material for Zionist organisations, including the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and illustrated numerous books on Jewish subjects, among them Silver Wing, Golden Harp: Jewish Stories for Children, The Golden Thread and The Everlasting Nay. He also designed the Holocaust Memorial for Leicester Synagogue and the official poster for the 1948 London Olympic Games. In 1962 he began a collaboration with the Jewish Chronicle, producing illustrations for ‘The Week’ section in the Junior Chronicle. He participated in group exhibitions at the Ben Uri Gallery including the Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Jewish Painters and Sculptors in 1950, and his work featured posthumously in Characters from the Bible (1998), Czech Jewish Artists from the Collection and Czech Routes: Selected Czechoslovak Artists in Britain from the Ben Uri and Private Collections (2019). Herz was also a notable collector of books and artefacts and donated his collection to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Walter Herz died in London, England in 1965. His work is represented in the UK public domain in the Ben Uri Collection.
Walter Herz in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Walter Herz]
Publications related to [Walter Herz] in the Ben Uri Library