Else Rothschild

Place: Bensheim

Born: 1892

Death: 1975

Biography:

Elsa Fraenkel, also known as Else Rothschild, was a German-born British sculptor. She was born on August 25, 1892, in Bensheim, Germany, and died on June 13, 1975, in Bangalore, India. Fraenkel's interest in art began when she was a young girl, and she received support from her family to pursue her passion. She took drawing lessons in Brussels at the age of 16 and attended History of Art lectures in Heidelberg University. Fraenkel later studied at the Karlsruhe Academy under Friedrich Fehr and Herman Foehri. In 1918, she married Dr.jur. Georg Fraenkel and had two children. Fraenkel traveled to Paris at least once a year to study under Jacques Loutchansky and moved in the artist circles of Constantin Brâncuși, Piet Mondrian, Charles Despiau, Aristide Maillol, and Fernand Léger. Fraenkel's career began with sculpting mainly bronze life-size busts of people and family members she came across in her daily life. She immigrated to London in 1935, and her son's Jewish boarding school also relocated that year. Fraenkel became friends with Sylvia Pankhurst during the post-war period and had a studio in Loughton, Essex.