"Magnolias" (1949), one of painter Herma Körding’s earliest surviving works, echoes melancholy and tender. The drooping magnolia blossoms, their pink blooms fading, press gently toward the viewer with solemn grace and surrender. The broad brushwork and moody palette suggest a reflective sensitivity that would be present in Körding’s still lifes throughout her career. Even at this early stage, she approaches the subject with emotional clarity, painting life into the moment she eternalized. 

Herma Körding
Herma Körding (1927–2010) was a German painter and draftsman known for her expressive portraits and structured still lifes, rooted in traditional techniques yet marked by personal vision. Trained in Karlsruhe, Paris, and Düsseldorf, she studied under artists such as Wilhelm Schnarrenberger and Jean Dupas, developing a figurative style that resisted the abstraction dominating postwar art. Körding worked primarily in oil and drawing media, focusing on quiet domestic subjects—often everyday people and natural objects—rendered with clarity, pattern, and emotional depth. In 1963, she became the first woman to win the Pfalz Prize for Painting, and in 1972 was awarded the Croix de Chevalier pour l’Art et Humanisme in Lyon. An advocate for women artists, she was the only woman on the board of Düsseldorf’s Künstlerverein Malkasten for many years and led efforts to expand exhibition opportunities for female creators. Her legacy as a dedicated figurative artist and cultural contributor in Düsseldorf continues to be celebrated through exhibitions and public honours.