Lisa was born Elise Pauline Pollak in Vienna on 17 October 1911, the daughter of Siegfried Pollak, an engineer and bridge builder, and his wife Adele, née Frankenstein. When Lisa was seven her father died of tuberculosis aged 51.
She made her first appearance at the age of twelve at an orchestral concert of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. She studied the violin at the Vienna Conservatory, going later to Berlin to complete her training with Carl Flesch, after which she moved to London, probably in 1933, in October of which year the present portrait was made. According to her son, in order to leave Germany she had been helped by an Italian diplomat who had befriended her in Berlin. Lisa recalled attending a reception with him at which Hitler was present: as they had passed into the reception area she had seen two members of the Gestapo commenting on the women and overheard one say to the other he could “smell a Jew a mile away.” After she had been presented to Hitler, who kissed her hand, the same man said that Lisa, who was indeed Jewish, was the most beautiful woman present.
She never returned to her native Austria and changed her name officially to Lisa Minghetti in 1935, although earlier references to the present portrait indicate that she was using that name before. When the Germans arrived in Austria, her mother and elder sister emigrated to Buenos Aires but Lisa never saw her mother again. In England she frequently played at major orchestral concerts in London and the provinces. While there she met and married Anton Maaskoff, himself a violin prodigy and 18 years her senior.
Before the outbreak of war they moved to Los Angeles where her only child Maurice was born in 1940. There she performed with the Alan Hancock Ensemble at the University of Southern California, in motion picture studio orchestras, and frequently gave chamber music recitals at home and for benefit concerts. She was considered to be in the first rank of modern women violinists, combining sound musicianship with brilliance of execution. Early on she worked and developed a close relationship with Paul Robeson. Having experienced American racial prejudice with him, later she herself became involved in the civil rights movement. After Anton Maaskoff died in 1951 she married Alfred Lustgarten, a Julliard trained violinist, who adopted her son. His brother was a renowned cellist and both played under Toscanini for a number of years.
Lisa Minghetti died in Los Angeles of skin cancer on 7 October 1961, shortly before her fiftieth birthday. (source)
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