Gertrude Degenhardt was one of Germany's leading painters and graphic artists. She first came to Ireland in the early 1970s, when she was commissioned to do some illustrations for a German edition of a book of short stories by Liam O'Flaherty. She fell in love with the West of Ireland and continually returned.

A workaholic, Gertrude was constantly drawing, sketching, etching and recording. Most of her dry-point etching was done on site - on the landscape, or in the pub, hence its fluidity and spontaneity. A keen observer of people, she rendered characters with a sense of absurdity, sometimes revealing and harnessing the grotesque, but most often with joyful humanity. Gertrude showed us our human folly while reminding us of one of our few redeeming forces - music. Song and wine were frequent features of her work, as were revolution, vagabonds, dance, musicians, tramps, Ireland, and, again and again, her husband Martin Degenhardt. Her themes often included the enjoyment of life, hate, desire, admiration, bliss, disdain, greed, and suffering. Her ink, pencil lines, or graphic motifs sing, and her gouache or tempera application was always distinctive, purposeful, direct, lyrical and above all, beautiful.

She produced a number of exhibitions for the Kenny Gallery in Galway. These include the 1989 "Farewell to Connaught" a show of remarkable perception - a vision of the West from one who lived abroad, but who obviously had a wonderful affinity with this part of the country. "Women in Music" - a series of some seventy images of female musicians, often playing the most extraordinary instruments. Other exhibitions include "Vagabondage", "And Passes By", "Paradise Lost", and most recently the 2023 exhibition "Flying Melodies".

Gertrude Degenhardt died in 2025