Ludwig Meidner was born into a Jewish family in Bernstadt, Germany (now Bierutów, Poland) in 1884 and studied in Berlin and Paris, initially working as a fashion illustrator. In 1912 he began a series of ‘Apocalyptic’ landscapes, which anticipated the carnage of the First World War, while his subsequent work, influenced by Rembrandt, included many religious paintings and self-portraits. In 1939 Meidner fled to England with his wife and former pupil, Else, where he suffered internment, poverty and critical neglect, before returning alone to Germany in 1953 to renewed acclaim.