Henri Friedlaender Collection

Henri Friedlaender
1904-1996

Henri Friedlaender was a well-known book designer and pioneer typographer. The brother of ceramic artist Marguerite (Friedlaender) Wildenhain, Henri, was born in Lyon, France, in 1904. When he was six years old his family moved to Berlin. In 1925 he began to study calligraphy and printing at the Academy of Graphic Art and Book Design in Leipzig, but fled Germany in 1932 in the face of rising anti-Semitism. He moved to The Hague, Netherlands, to work as art director at the Mouton publishing house. In 1936 he expanded his professional interests into education, teaching calligraphy and typography in Amsterdam. Following the Nazi invasion of Holland in 1940, Henri hid in the attic of his house for 1018 days. He was kept alive by his wife, Maria (he was Jewish, she was not) who gave him food through a small hole in the attic. Much of his existing work was buried in the backyard to keep it from the Nazis. He occupied his time in hiding by continuing to work on the creation of a modern Hebrew alphabet, something he had started years before. Their only child, Hanna, was born in 1949, and the following year the family relocated to Israel where Henri headed the Hadassah-Brandeis Apprentice School of Printing in Jerusalem. Finally, in 1958, after 27 years of development and setbacks, he completed the first modern Hebrew typeface, "Hebrew Hadassah." In 1971 Henri Friedlaender received the Gutenberg Prize, the highest award given to typographers. He died in 1996.

Henri Friedlaender visited Luther College in 1989 and donated several works of art to the Fine Arts Collection, including four oil paintings, four etchings, and a woodcut by Frans Wildenhain; an oil painting by Charles Crodel; and two crayon sketches by his sister, Marguerite. He later gave a porcelain cup and saucer designed by Marguerite as a prototype for a German airlines beverage service. Although never adopted by the airline, the prototype was reproduced in 2000 by the Meissen manufacturing company as a gift for guests during the opening of the intercontinental runway at the Leipzig/Halle Airport on March 24, 2000.

Ref: Fine Arts Collection files, 2003; www.myfonts.com/person/friedlaender/henri/, 2003; www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/nov1991/LB-N91-Fontaine.html (text by William C. Fontaine) 2003.


Henri Friedlaender Collection: 1 |

Updated 10/08/2003