Early Life and Artistic Beginnings
Born in Vienna, Austria, Gerhardt Frankl was the son of Emil Frankl, a lawyer and bank manager, and Else Frankl. After attending gymnasium, he briefly studied chemistry at the Technical University before beginning his artistic training in 1920. He studied under Anton Kolig in Nötsch, becoming one of the first members of the workshop community formed around Kolig. As he developed his own artistic personality, his relationship with his teacher became strained. During his formative years, Frankl undertook several study trips to North Africa, France, Italy, Holland, and Germany, where he trained his skills by observing nature and the works of old masters in museums.
Exile and Later Works
Following the Anschluss, Frankl and his wife, Christine, fled to London in 1938. During the war years in England, his painting production ceased, and he focused on graphic work, including drawing lessons and picture restorations. After the war, he returned to Vienna in 1947, creating paintings near the Belvedere, but he eventually returned to England in 1949. He became a British citizen in 1950. His later artistic development included a shift toward a painterly structure that approached the limits of subject matter. His final work group, created in 1964/65, was a cycle titled In Memoriam, which utilized a drastic realism to process the horrors of the concentration camps where his parents had perished. He died in Vienna in 1965.
