Hugo Erfurth; Elsa Wiesenthal; Staatliche Landesbildstelle Hamburg; collection on the history of photography; paper; pigment print; image size: height: 22;6 cm; width: 16;4 cm; signed; in lead: Hugo Erfurth; inscribed: verso u. li. in ink: Hugo Erfurth; stamp: verso and right: handwritten with ballpoint pen: B 218 2; inscribed: inside left passepartoutside and left: in lead: No. B 2182; Wiesenthal; label: verso passepartoutside cardboard: in typewriter font: No. B 2018/2; Hugo Erfurth; Wiesenthal; inscribed: verso passe-partout cardboard: with black felt-tip pen: measurements; stamp: verso passe-partout cardboard: inventory stamp of the State Picture Gallery Hamburg; handwritten in ink: B 218 2; portrait photography; dancer; full-length portrait; movement; dancing; dress; Elsa Wiesenthal; At the beginning of the 20th century; the artist was a member of the Staatliche Landesbildstelle Hamburg (State Picture Gallery Hamburg) At the beginning of the 20th century; Hugo Erfurth; along with Rudolph D黨rkoop and Nicola Perscheid; was one of the most famous professional photographers in Germany. After completing an apprenticeship as a photographer; he opened his own studio in Dresden at the age of only 22. Soon Erfurth orientated himself towards the up-and-coming pictorialist photography; participated in numerous amateur photographic exhibitions from 1894 onwards and managed to make a name for himself both as an artistically ennobled amateur and successful professional photographer. Portraits are central to his work; which he began taking in 1906 in his new studio; a classicist palace; in a stylishly elegant ambience; appealing to the wealthy bourgeoisie. He also produced numerous portraits of famous personalities; including K鋞he Kollwitz; Otto Dix and Joachim Ringelnatz. While his studies around 1905 still show full-length figures depicted in an atmospheric way; from the 1920s onward the focus is on the face; which is photographed against a simple monochrome background.