Enid Abrahams

Enid Dreyfus (née Abrahams; 1906 – 1972) was a British painter. Born in London, she exhibited regularly in her home town including at the Leicester Galleries, New English Art Club, and Royal Society of British Artists. She is best known for her works depicting life during World War II, captured during her time as a volunteer in the Auxiliary Fire Service in London.

Biography Abrahams was born into a Jewish family in Hendon, London in 1906. After studying art, she exhibited regularly across London in her twenties. She continued to engage with art between her shifts, sketching vignettes of life during the war.

After the conclusion of the war, she married Charles Hipolyte Dreyfus (1911–2008) in 1947, after which point she authored herself as Enid Dreyfus. Her still life at the New English Art Club was commended by The Jewish Chronicle as "exceptionally attractive arrangement of colour and tone beautifully painted". Much of her inspiration was drawn from her work and colleagues in the AFS, capturing informal and intimate moments including firewomen sleeping between shifts and a group of firemen attempting to repair a piano. In August 1941, her depiction of the National Fire Service responding to a call sold to the WAAC for six guineas.

After the war she continued to exhibit, including four times at the Royal Academy from 1948–1956, and at the Imperial War Museum in 1958. Following her death her work continued to appear in exhibitions about the war, and examples of her work are held in the Imperial War Museum, Ben Uri Gallery & Museum, Royal Air Force Museum, and Guildhall Art Gallery.

Works Firewomen Resting, London Blitz, (c. 1941) Two Sleeping Soldiers (c. 1941) The Five Pound Piano – Firemen at Bethnal Green Fire Station, London Blitz (c. 1941) Bells! A Unit of the National Fire Service Answering a Call (c. 1941) St Paul's from Warwick Lane, London (c. 1960s) Welsh Chapel (1968)