UHLMAN, FRED

UHLMAN, FRED (Manfred; 1901–1985), English painter and writer. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, and trained as a lawyer, Uhlman began to paint when he fled to Paris after the Nazis came to power. In Germany, he was at risk both as a Jew and as a prominent lawyer for the outlawed Social Democratic Party. His first works, studies of French life, resembled the productions of "Sunday" painters. His first exhibitions were held in Paris by the mid-1930s. In 1936 Uhlman moved to England and married Diana Page Croft, the daughter of an extreme right-wing Member of Parliament, Sir Henry Page Croft. Uhlman was briefly interned as an "enemy alien" in 1940. When Uhlman moved to England, his work developed more sophistication. He became an interpreter of the English provincial scene in a linear style, as in his paintings of cathedral cities. After the war he held many exhibitions. He was the author of an interesting autobiography, The Making of an Englishman (1960), and also became a novelist of some note, whose Reunion (1971) was translated into many languages. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online.