ERICH LEPS. City view with trees, oil on panel, signed.

Possibly from Ulm, Germany, 1940s. 48x57 (52x63) cm.

Erich Leps (born Erich Lõps on 30 November 1901 in Tallinn, died 14 December 1965 in Chicago) was an Estonian painter. He began his artistic career by studying drawing at the Tallinn Art Industry School in 1916-1917. In early 1918 he travelled to Russia and studied at the naval school in Kronstadt where he graduated as a radiotelegraphist in 1920. After returning to Estonia in 1921 and serving in the Armed Forces, he continued his studies at the State Art Industry School from 1924 to 1925 and then at the Pallas Academy of Arts under Nikolai Triik from 1925 to 1931. He received a scholarship to study in Paris in 1931-1932 and later made short study trips to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Russia.

From 1928 Leps participated in all exhibitions organized by the Cultural Capital of Estonia and the art association Pallas in Estonia. His work was also shown at foreign Estonian art exhibitions in Riga, Moscow, Germany and other places. In the second half of the 1930s, Leps lived in Pärnu, where he opened his own studio, lectured at the folk high school, and organized art excursions to Tallinn.

From 1944 to 1949 he lived as a war refugee in Ulm, Germany. During his years in exile in Germany, Leps continued with his artistic activities and participated in almost all exhibitions of Estonian art in Germany. He organized and led the first association of applied arts and crafts of Estonian refugees in Ulm, Estonian Handicraft.

In 1949 he emigrated with his wife to the United States, where he worked first as an art teacher and portrait painter, and later as an advertising artist in Hartford, Connecticut, and subsequently in Chicago until his death.

Leps was, along with Endel Kõks, one of the most active organizers of Estonian art life in the German refugee camps during the 1940s, creating several notable works during this time. Leps wished for his art collection to be sent to the Pärnu Museum in his native country after his death. Thanks to the help of her daughter-in-law Virve Leps, family friend Mai Treude and the Estonian National Archives, this wish could be fulfilled. Over 120 of Lep's works, along with works by his wife and other artists, were sent to Estonia.