Painter, graphic artist
Elise Friedjung Rosen was born in Vienna in 1895. From 1913 to 1915 she attended the Lehr und Versuchsanstalt. At the same time, she attended private lectures by architect A. Loos and from 1916 to 1917 studied painting in a private school. She moved on to do architectural drawings for the studio of architecture F.Schoen, the Austrian State Railways and received several commissions for book designs and etchings. She then established a studio for teaching and research for putting graphic art to practical use. She was one of the first to use the airbrush technique. She married Maximilian Rosen in 1928. With increased recognition of her various creativenesses, exhibitions of her works of art were shown in Vienna, Paris and in New York.
Elise Rosen and her husband felt compelled to leave Austria in 1939 with the rise of Nazism and they immigrated to the USA. She was first aided by the National Refugee Service, New York, and by friends. She then worked at various jobs, until 1941, when she became an embroidery designer with Caroline S. Meyer. Rosen became an American citizen in 1945. From 1950 to 1952, she studied serigraphy at City College of New York, and from 1955 to 1959 studied lithography at the New York Trade School.
Rosen is noted for her drawings, industrial designs, watercolors, etchings, serigraphs and woodcuts. She was editor of the book, Career Opportunities in Art. Her many individual exhibitions include the Roerich Gallery (1957) and Stefen Wise Free Synagogue (1974), both in New York, the group-shows include Genossenschaft der bildenden Kunstler, Vienna (1921); Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (1925); Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna (1926); Austrian Institute, New York (1966). Collections: Serigraphs and prints in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Albertina, Vienna; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C; Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, and others. She was member of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America; National Serigraph Society (member of board of trustees), and Agni Yoga Society. Rosen was also a recipient of the pretigious Diplome de Medaille d’Argent, Paris (1925).