Hilda Goldwag

Hilda Goldwag (28 April 1912 – 28 January 2008) was an artist whose works included paintings, book illustrations and commercial designs. She was born in Vienna, Austria, but moved to Scotland in 1939 to escape the Nazis. Many of her paintings are of the life and buildings of mid-to-late twentieth century Glasgow.

Biography One of three children, Goldwag was raised primarily by her mother, Szerena, following the death of her artist and gallery-owner father, Moses Leopold Goldwag, when she was nine years old.

Hilda attended Anna Schantruch Art Classes in Vienna and was one of a number of pupils chosen to paint murals for the Sandleitener Kindergarten. Her sadness at the loss of family members can be felt in much of Goldwag's art.

Hilda was assisted by the Scottish Domestic Bureau for Refugee Women, a combined Jewish and Quaker women's initiative and met her lifelong friend, and fellow refugee, Cecile (Cecilia Zoé) Schwarzschild (12 May 1914 – 1998), in Edinburgh in 1939 at the Quaker Meeting House. Hilda worked as a domestic help for a Church of Scotland minister in West Linton. Goldwag painted landscapes and industrial buildings, often working outdoors with oil on canvas and also painted flowers and portraits.