Ernst Oppler

Ernst Oppler was a Jew and Impressionist painter and etcher. He studied in München and continued his education in England and Holland before he settled in Berlin, and became a member of the Berlin Secession under Max Liebermann. Ernst Oppler (also called the “dance painter”) was called the best of the German theater and ballet painters of his time. He invented a lighted pen to paint in the theater in the dark can. He was the brother of Alexander Oppler who participated in the category Sculpturing in the 1928 Art Competitions. Their father was the well-known architect Edwin Oppler (1831-1880).

Ernst Oppler’s Tennis Court (or Tennis Match) is actually the painting Tennis in Westende I - a Belgian seaside resort – and was already from 1912. In the same year, a similar pastel was also created. The oil painting was also shown a year earlier at the Berlin Secession exhibition under the motto “Sport”. Today it is in the Tel Aviv Museum.