Emmy Eugenie Andriesse (14 January 1914 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

– 20 February 1953 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

) was a Dutch photographer best known for her work with the Underground Camera group () during World War II.

Early life and education

Emmy Andriesse was the only child of liberal Jews Abraham Andriesse and Else Fuld, both working in textile companies. At age fifteen, she lost her mother, and since her father traveled internationally for work, she was raised by several aunts. From 1932 to 1937, after high school, Andriesse studied advertising design at the Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague founded in 1929 by designer . At the academy she belonged to a group of students around left-wing designer

Paul Schuitema Geert Paul Hendrikus Schuitema (; 27 February 1897 – 25 October 1973) was a Dutch graphic artist. He also designed furniture and expositions and worked as photographer, film director, painter and teacher for publicity design at the Royal A ...

. She attended an experimental class taught by Paul Schuitema and Gerrit Kiljan, where she learnt photography and the use of photographs in posters, advertising and newspaper articles. In her final years of study, she lived in

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 peo ...

in a 'community house' together with a group of politically conscious fellow students. Amongst the 15 or so residents were photographer Hans Wolf and academics Eva Loeb, Hans Ijzerman and Lex Metz. In this environment Andriesse and her friends came into contact with

International Red Aid International Red Aid (also commonly known by its Russian acronym MOPR ( ru , МОПР, for: ''Междунаро́дная организа́ция по́мощи борца́м револю́ции'' - Mezhdunarodnaya organizatsiya pomoshchi bor ...

and various anti-fascist artists' organizations. Andriesse was a member of

Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst The Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst (V.A.N.K.) (Dutch Association for Craft and Industrial Art) was founded in 1904. It was founded by Jacob Pieter van den Bosch, Herman Hana, Klaas van Leeuwen, Theo Molkenboer, and W ...

(V.A.N.K.) the Dutch Association for Craft and Craft Art.

War years and the 'Underground Camera'

In June 1941 Andriesse married graphic designer and visual artist

Dick Elffers Dirk Cornelis "Dick" Elffers (Rotterdam, 9 December 1910 – Amsterdam, 17 June 1990) was a Dutch artist.Elffers, Dick ''Vorm en tegenvorm: poging tot een portret van een ontwerper'' (1976) uitg. Gerrit Jan Thiemefonds, Amsterdam Life Elffers ...

(a gentile with whom she had two sons, one who died young), but as a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

during the

Nazi occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

Andriesse was no longer able to publish and she was forced into hiding. At the end of 1944, with the assistance of the anthropologist she forged an identity card and re-engaged in everyday life, joining a group of photographers, including

Cas Oorthuys Casparus Bernardus Oorthuys (1 November 1908 – 22 July 1975), known as Cas Oorthuys, was a Dutch photographer and designer active from the 1930s until the 1970s. Education Casparus Bernardus (Cas) Oorthuys, born 1908 in Leiden, was the fourth ...

and

Charles Breijer Charles Breijer (26 November 1914, The Hague – 18 August 2011, Hilversum) was a Dutch photographer, known as a "resistance photographer," notable especially for the photographs he took during the last year of the German occupation of Netherlands ...

, working clandestinely as ''De Ondergedoken Camera''. The photos that Andriesse made under very difficult conditions of famine in Amsterdam, include ''Boy with pan'', ''The Gravedigger'' and ''Kattenburg Children'' are documents of hunger, poverty and misery during the occupation in the "winter of hunger" of 1944-1945. AndriesseVolendam1945.jpg, Volendam July 1945 AndriesseEmmyVolendam1945.jpg, EmmyAndriesseVolendam1945-4.jpg, AndriesseRijksmuseum1.jpg, '' The Love Letter (Vermeer)''
(Rijksmuseum July 1945) De Anatomische les van dr. J. Deijman van Rembrandt, Bestanddeelnr 900-5341.jpg, ''

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman ''The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman'' (alternative spelling Deyman) is a 1656 fragmentary painting by Rembrandt, now in Amsterdam Museum. It is a group portrait showing a brain dissection by Dr. Jan Deijman (16191666). Much of the canvas was dest ...

'' back in the Rijksmuseum
(July 1945)

Post-war

After the war, she became a fashion photographer and was an associate and mentor of

Ed van der Elsken Eduard van der Elsken (10 March 1925 – 28 December 1990) was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker. His imagery provides quotidian, intimate and autobiographic perspectives on the European zeitgeist spanning the period of the Second World War in ...

. She participated in the group show ''Photo '48'' and in 1952, together with , Eva Besnyö and Cas Oorthuys, the exhibition ''Photographie'', both in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum.

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography. Steichen was credited with tr ...

chose her 1947 portrait of a staid and elderly Dutch couple for the section 'we two form a multitude' in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

world-touring ''

The Family of Man ''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photography, photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Department of Photography. According to Steichen, ...

'' that was seen by an audience of 9 million. More recently (October 2006-January 2007) she was included in a display of Twentieth Century European photography at the

Barbican Art Gallery The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhib ...

, London. Andriesse's last commission, the book ''The World of Van Gogh'' - published posthumously in 1953 - was not yet complete when she became ill and after a long battle with cancer, died at the age of 39. At Harbor Island East in Amsterdam, the Emmy Andriessestraat is named after her.

References

External links

Biography
(Dutch)
Photobook with biography
(English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Andriesse, Emmy 1914 births 1953 deaths Dutch people of World War II Dutch resistance members Photographers from The Hague Dutch women photographers 20th-century Dutch women artists 20th-century Dutch photographers 20th-century women photographers

Early life and education

War years and the 'Underground Camera'

Post-war

References

Further reading

External links