In June MGA hosts Emil Otto
Hoppé: society, studio, and street celebrating the work of
a pivotal figure in photography in the first half of the twentieth century.
Cecil Beaton called him
‘The Master’; during the 1920s, he was the most famous photographer in the
world. Now El Mundo applauds
Hoppe's exhibition at MAPFRE in Madrid
During the 1920s and 30s, Hoppé was one of Europe’s most sought-after
photographers. His studio in South Kensington was a magnet for the rich and
famous, from dancers to film stars and from royalty to leading writers and
artists.
Hoppé photographed the most famous cultural identities of the era. This
exhibition features remarkable portraits of most of the leading social and
cultural figures of the period, including King George V and Queen Elizabeth,
Albert Einstein, Fritz Lang, Paul Robeson, and Benito Mussolini.
Many of Hoppé’s subjects included major literary figures. George Bernard Shaw, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, AA Milne, Ezra Pound, Vita Sackville West, Anita Loos, Somerset Maugham, Henry James, Rudyard
Kipling and Thomas Hardy all sat for Hoppé. The artists Jacob Epstein, Marinetti,
Marsden Hartley, Käthe Kollwitz and dancers Margot Fonteyn, Martha Graham and
Nijinsky also had their portraits taken by Hoppé.
The works of Emil Otto Hoppé come to Melbourne for the first time in an exhibition at
MGA from 9 June to 29 July 2012.
Drawn from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London and
the EO Hoppé Archive in Pasadena, California.
image:Emil Otto Hoppé
Ezra Pound 1918
gelatin-silver print
