Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street

'I knew Hoppe's photographs for years.' - Alfred Stieglitz, New York, 1921 'The Master' - Cecil Beaton, London, 1945 'The missing link in British photography between Frederick Evans and those contrasting moderns, Bill Brandt and Cecil Beaton' - Mark Haworth-Booth, London, 2006 Born in Munich in 1878 and resident in Britain from 1902, Emil Otto Hoppe began his photographic career in 1907 and soon developed a transatlantic reputation for photographing eminent figures from the worlds of literature, politics and the arts. Sitters include Jacob Epstein, Henry James, Tilly Losch, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Margot Fonteyn, W. Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw and the royal family. Less well known are his sensitive studies of ordinary people - such as cleaners, maids,and street vendors - that Hoppe made on location as well as in his London studio from the 1920s onwards. His photo-stories of the early 1930s were taken for the new pictureled reportage magazines, such as Weekly Illustrated. These masterful observations had a major impact on later photographers and predate the growth of photojournalism during and after the Second World War. Following extensive conservation and organisation, the Hoppe photographic archive has been recently reunited with letters and biographical documents held by his estate. This important survey showcases 150 of Hoppe's remarkable portraits, including many previously unpublished photographs as well as new research into his life and work. Accompanies a major National Portrait Gallery, London exhibition, 17 February-30 May 2011.