Erna Hoppe Kinross was born 17 September 1878, daughter of Louise Adele (nee Vogler) and Karl Theodore Hoppe and grew up in Hamburg. She specialised in figurative works and townscapes, exhibiting her work throughout the decade 1910-20, being recorded in Paris from 1906-1914. There she met Charles Kinross and they were married in 1906. By then she was an established artist who had exhibited at the Salon, Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts.

At their holiday home in Giverny they met and became friends with the mpressionist painter Claude Monet. Some of the pictures that Erna painted before marrying were later amended and “Kinross” added – so the date of the painting may be correct despite having “Erna Hoppe-Kinross” as the signature.

The Kinross’s moved to England in 1915 where Charles’s business was based. One of her paintings was published in English Colour Magazine 1919 Vol II No. 4, but the subject (“Orchard Girl”) was clearly based on a French scene. An exhibition was held in Hastings sometime in the late 50’s or early 60’s at which a number of her remaining paintings were sold. She died on 31 March 1964.