Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Schools
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • SCHOOLS
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member

Josef Herman

1911–2000

The Organ Grinder c.1940–1
© The estate of Josef Herman
License this image
In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

17 artworks by Josef Herman
View by Appointment
In Tate Britain

Library and Archive Reading Rooms

View by Appointment

Biography

Josef Herman (3 January 1911 – 19 February 2000), was a highly regarded Polish-British painter who influenced contemporary art, particularly in the United Kingdom. He was part of a generation of central and eastern European Jewish refugee artists who emigrated to escape Nazi persecution. He saw himself as part of a tradition of European figurative artists who painted working people, a tradition that included Courbet, Millet and Van Gogh, Kathe Kollwitz and the Flemish Expressionist Constant Permeke. For eleven years he lived in Ystradgynlais, a mining community in South Wales.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. Spotted a problem? Let us know.

Read full Wikipedia entry

Artworks

Left Right
  • The Cart

    Josef Herman
    1960
    View by appointment
  • Two Miners

    Josef Herman
    1960–2
    View by appointment
  • Two Miners

    Josef Herman
    c.1960
    View by appointment
  • Two Seated Peasants

    Josef Herman
    1961
    View by appointment
  • Mother and Child

    Josef Herman
    1961–2
    View by appointment
  • Dusk

    Josef Herman
    1965
  • Figure against Dark Sky

    Josef Herman
    1965
    View by appointment
  • In the Mountains

    Josef Herman
    1965
    View by appointment
See all 34

Film and audio

  • Look Closer

    Josef Herman: Sketches of Wales

Features

  • Tate Etc

    In Focus: Émigré Artists

    Monica Bohm-Duchen

Sketches, letters, etc.

  • ‘Some notes on the 1950ies’

    Josef Herman
    [c.1980s–1990s]
    View by appointment
  • Cover design for ‘The Passionate Measure’ by Ivan V. Lalić

    Josef Herman
    [c.1989]
    View by appointment
  • ‘Poems by Else Lasker-Schüler’, illustrated by Josef Herman

    Josef Herman
    1980
    View by appointment
See all 171

In the shop

Browse the shop
Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved