Feibusch, Hans

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FEIBUSCH, HANS

FEIBUSCH, HANS (1898–1998), English painter, sculptor, and lithographer. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of a dentist, he served in World War i and in 1930 was awarded the German state prize for painters. His early work was destroyed by the Nazis. Feibusch came to England in 1933 and was naturalized in 1940. He is especially well known for his murals in churches – including Chichester Cathedral – public buildings, and private houses. These depict classical mythology as well as religious subjects. Emphasizing the human figure, they are elegant and decorative, with a feeling for gesture and rhythm. He also executed colored lithographs and wrote Mural Painting and The Revelation of St. John (both 1946), and produced Old Testament figures as well for Stern Hall, London. For much of his life in Britain Feibusch was closely associated with Anglicanism; at the end of his long life he returned to Judaism, and died three weeks short of his hundredth birthday.

add. bibliography:

P. Foster (ed.), Feibusch Murals: Chichester and Beyond (1997); odnb online.