Eva Herrmann’s drawing of Albert Einstein was likely produced in 1931. It is possible that the painter and the physicist made each other’s acquaintance in New York. Herrmann once noted, in a comment written on a photographic copy of one of her Einstein portraits, that the physicist “liked this drawing”. She later sent this piece to Klaus Mann, who had requested creative support for his magazine Decision.

As was also the case with the artist Herrmann, Nobel laureate Einstein tended to travel frequently. Even before his emigration to the USA he was a regular visitor to that country and delivered numerous lectures there. Einstein ultimately, after a brief sojourn in Belgium, chose not to return to Germany and left the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1933 after 19 years of academic service. Many of his writings were included in the Nazi book burnings of May 1933. On 24 March 1934 his citizenship was rescinded. Einstein was well connected in exile with links to prestigious scientists and intellectuals, including Prince Hubertus zu Loewenstein who sought to enlist Einstein’s services for the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom. Einstein went on to support a number of other notable German émigrés with his letters of recommendation including the architect responsible for designing his summer house, Konrad Wachsmann.