Mrs Hugh Garland

Kramer was born in Klincy, Ukraine where his father and uncle were both court painters. He arrived in England in 1900 and settled in the Jewish community in Leeds. Leaving home at a very early age he spent a brief period at sea and then worked in northern towns whilst at the same time attending occasional art classes at Manchester School of Art and Leeds School of Art. He became involved in the radically modernist Leeds Art Club, which introduced him to the ideas of expressionist artists and begin his own interest in revealing the spiritual manifestation of his subject along with the physical appearance. Under the sponsorship of the Jewish Educational Aid Society he was able study full time for a scholarship, leading to a time at the Slade School of Art, 1913-14. After his first solo show in Bradford in 1915 he was invited to show with the Vorticists in London and was elected a member of the London Group. Although never really a Vorticist in style, several of his woodcuts appears in the group’s literary magazine Blast. The inter-war years saw Kramer consolidating his reputation with shows in Yorkshire and London and becoming a noted portraitist. In 1959 he was elected president of Leeds Fine Art Club and in 1960 had a retrospective exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery. Kramer’s sister Sarah married the artist William Roberts. Works by him are in many public collections. This portrait comes from the collection of Dr Hugh Gregory Garland, an eminent Leeds neurologist and friend of the artist.