Five émigré artists who greatly enriched Britain's intellectual and creative scenes

Despite the vitriol that these days surrounds the immigration debate, there is no doubt the intellectual and creative scene in Britain (and many other countries) has been enriched by the arrival of artists settling in from abroad, often fleeing persecution or oppressive regimes, but sometimes simply looking for opportunities or inspiration.

Shapero Rare Books, Shapero Modern and Willoughby Gerrish are putting the spotlight on the artistic contribution of émigrés past and present at Frieze Masters, with the exhibitions then moving to or continuing at their respective galleries (until October 31 for the first two and October 28–November 21 for the latter).

Here are five immigrant artists who changed the history of 20th-century art.

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)


Picasso was only 19 when he first visited Paris and the vibrant atmosphere of the French capital proved such a lure that he eventually decided to live there.

He remained true to his adoptive nation even when, during the Vichy regime, he drew the Gestapo’s unwanted attention, yet, he never ceased to care for his country of origin.

Having captured the horrors of the Spanish Civil war in Guernica, he stipulated that the painting could never go to Spain until she returned to democracy.

Marc Chagall (1887–1985)


Born in a poor Jewish family in what is now Belarus, Chagall moved to Paris in 1910 and it was there that he began producing his fantastical artworks.

A brief trip home turned into an extended stay as the First World War broke out, but he later made his way back to France — only to have to flee again during the Second World War, when the Vichy government began persecuting Jews.

He finally settled on the Côte d’Azur in 1948 and continued to work into his nineties.

Lucie Rie (1902–95)


Rie had already won a silver medal at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition when, a year later, Germany’s annexation of Austria forced her to leave her native Vienna.

She escaped to London, where at first she made a living creating buttons. However, Rie never ceased making bowls, vases and bottles and, over the decades, became one of Britain’s most influential ceramicists — and the very first to be made, in 1991, a Dame Commander of the British Empire

Lucian Freud (1922–2011)


Freud was a child when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and his family sought refuge in Britain, where the artist’s grandfather, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, would join them a few years later.

He became a British national in 1939 and went on to forge a spectacular artistic career as one of this country’s greatest portraitists.

Frank Auerbach (1931–2024)


In 1939, Auerbach was sent as a child refugee to Britain in a bid to escape the Nazis — his parents were later both killed in concentration camps.

Naturalised British in 1947, he would become known for his extraordinary technique — painting, then scraping back what he had done, before repeating the process until he was happy with the result — and gain recognition as one of the major figurative artists of our day.