Emil Otto Hoppé

Emil Otto Hoppé’s work followed in the Pictorialist tradition. In particular he became celebrated for his portraits of leading cultural figures, including George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Jacob Epstein. Frequently working with narrow depth of field against a neutral background, Hoppé pared down his portraits in order to emphasise his sitters’ individuality. Hoppé was also a prolific street and landscape photographer, documenting everyday life in London. His work was often featured in magazines such as Weekly Illustrated. 

Hoppé was born in Germany in 1878, moving to London at the beginning of the twentieth century, he became a member of the Royal Photographic Society in 1903. Hoppé’s photographs have been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the National Portrait Gallery, London. His work is held in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, George Eastman House, Rochester and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, among others. Hoppé died in London in 1972.