WALTER LANGHAMMER (AUSTRIAN 1905 -1977)
Portraits of Geoffrey and Anna Allen,
Each signed W Langhammer lower right
Oil on canvas, a pair
54.5 x 41cm (21 1/2 x 16 1/4in)
(2)

Geoffrey and Anna Allen (1896-1965 & 1900-1977 respectively) led eventful lives. Born in Vienna, Geoffrey was commended for his exploits in the First World War, one of which included taking two Italian soldiers prisoner while he himself was severely wounded. He met Anna in the late 1920s and the couple married in 1931. Both Jewish (Anna was from a Polish speaking part of the Austro-Hungarian empire), in 1938 Geoffrey was sent to Dachau concentration camp, but was released as part of a goodwill gesture, and managed to reach England. First interned, he subsequently joined the Pioneer Corps, and saw service in Rennes, France before returning to Britain to be an army clerk and translator. Anna, meanwhile went in search of Geoffrey in Dachau, where she succeeded in entering the camp undetected to look for her husband, but unaware that he was no longer there. Through tenacity and good fortune she subsequently reached Britain, learnt English and held down a variety of jobs including as a van driver, in a grocery, as a nanny and as an accounts clerk. After the couple were reunited, and Geoffrey was demobbed in 1948 he became a successful businessman, traveling throughout Europe. Settling in North London among the Austrian-Jewish exiled community there, the Langhammers became family friends. Geoffrey and Anna commissioned portraits of themselves from Walter Langhammer and acquired the present range of landscapes from him too.

Geoffrey and Anna Allen (1896-1965 & 1900-1977 respectively)


Geoffrey and Anna Allen (1896-1965 & 1900-1977 respectively)


Geoffrey and Anna Allen (