Helmut von Erffa Papers

Helmut von Erffa was born in 1900 in Lueneburg, Germany and graduated from the Humanistiches Gymnasium with highest honors in 1919.

After graduation he became a non-student friend of the internationally renowned architectural school, the Bauhaus, in Weimar, Germany during 1919 and 1920, its first two years of existence. In 1921 and 1922, von Erffa became a student at the Bauhaus where he studied under Johannes Itten and Walter Gropius. Inspired by Johannes Itten's teaching style, and convinced that he wanted to be a teacher rather than an architect, von Erffa left the Bauhaus and came to the United States to pursue his education.

He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Harvard in 1931 and 1933 respectively. During 1933 and 1934 he held a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship from Harvard and studied Islamic art in Egypt, Syria, Persia and the Near East.

Upon returning to the United States, von Erffa taught at Bryn Mawr, Northwestern University and Swarthmore College. He received a master of fine arts degree from Princeton in 1938.

Von Erffa came to Rutgers in 1946 where he became chairman of the Art Department.

Like Benjamin West, the subject of much of the research in this collection, Helmut von Erffa was a Quaker.

by Helmut H. von Erffa

Born 10th October, 1738 in Springfield, Pa., U.S.A., died 11th March, 1820, London, buried in St. Paul's Cathedral;. Although from a Quaker background -- his father had migrated to the American colonies from Buckinghamshire in 1699 -- he showed early a propensity toward painting and was encouraged by prominent men in Lancaster and Philadelphia to paint historical pictures (i.e., subjects of moral significance). Studied in Italy the works of Renaissance and Baroque painters (1760-1763) and in London (1763- 1820) helped to establish the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. In 1772 he became historic painter to George 111 and second president of the Royal Academy after the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1792. A sensation as a self-taught American backwoodsman painting heroic-classical subjects, he achieved fame through "Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus," "Hannibal swearing eternal hatred to the Romans" and "Regulus returning to Carthage." While under the influence of classical art theory (Dufresnay, Richardson, etc.) he soon turned to the history picture in modern dress: "Death of General Wolfe," "Penn's Treaty with the Indians" (1771) for which he became internationally famous. Much of his later life (1780-1810) was taken up with large projects for his royal patron George Ill: "Scenes from the life of Edward Ill" for the Audience Chamber at Windsor Castle, five stained glass windows for St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and thirty-six subjects of Revealed Religion for the King's Chapel at Windsor. When, after the King's illness in 1810 this last scheme was abandoned, West, though in his seventies, turned to large canvases of religious subjects, his most famous being "Christ healing the Sick." His early dream of making painting an uplifting influence on everybody was thus realised. To relieve the strain of painting large compositions West often turned to landscape, especially to the charming spots around Windsor and the Thames. Like nearly every painter of his time he was much in demand as a portrait painter.

West's period was one of transition from the late Renaissance to modern times. In his pictures classicism and realism often mingle, sometimes clash in a way unfamiliar or even startling to us.

The preceding biographical note on Benjamin West was taken from "Royal Naval College Greenwich--A Short Guide to the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul" by the Reverend Basil Watson. A copy of this guide may be found in Box 1 , Folder 3 of the collection.