The German artist and engraver Olaf Gropp grew up in Dittelstedt, a rural suburb of Erfurt in the German state of Thuringia, and after an apprenticeship as a painter from 1967 to 1970 he became a master craftsman in painting and decorating. Gropp decided he wanted to develop his graphic skills, so from 1972 to 1975 he studied painting and engraving in Erfurt, Halle and Burg Giebichenstein, with teachers including Günther Kieser and Fritz Glitzner. In 1981 he became a fulltime freelance artist, supplemented by teaching intaglio printing at the Volkshochschule in Erfurt.

Olaf Gropp showed his graphic works at exhibitions at home and abroad, his subjects including Erfurt cityscapes, Greek mythology, and his commissioned bookplates, of which he produced more than 250 between 1985 and 2011.

In 2011 he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable muscle-wasting disease, which sadly put an end to his artistic endeavours.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artist, and for supplying many of the images.