Albert Reuss 1889-1976

Albert Reuss was born in Budapest in 1889 into a Jewish family called Reiss. His father was a butcher and expected his sons to follow that trade. At the age of eighteen, in spite of strong opposition, Albert left home and moved to Vienna intending to begin a career as an artist. He was self-taught. He said that he had the best teachers, the great master painters of all time, for he began to earn a modest living by making salable copies of many world-famous paintings in the Viennese art galleries and museums. Just as he was beginning to make his way in the art world with his own individual work, there came the Nazi annexation of Austria. Albert changed his name to Reuss, but due to the dangerous political situation he and his wife, Rosa, were compelled to leave the country along with many other Jewish refugees and were offered asylum in Britain.