Painter, illustrator, author, printmaker, carver
Born in Vienna, Austria. Her mother was a painter. From the age of seventeen to twenty she studied at an art school in Vienna. Later she lived in Berlin for two years and in Paris for one year, exhibiting in both cities. She was awarded a silver medal for handpainted silks at the International Exhibition of Arts and Industries in Paris in 1937.
Bettina married the sculptor Georg Ehrlich in 1930. They came to the UK in 1938 when it became dangerous to remain in Austria. Bettina was a painter and illustrator who worked in a wide variety of media including lithography, etching, oils, watercolor, woodcut and lino cut. In 1940 she wrote and illustrated ‘Poo-Tsee, the Water Tortoise’ and then went on to publish more than twenty books for children. Bettina also became an expert in casting and patinating her husband’s bronzes. After Georg’s death in 1966 she lived in London and supervised the casting of his plaster and plasticine originals until her death.
