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Ferdinand Erfmann, painter, draftsman, actor and acrobat, grew up in a Rotterdam family of actors. In Amsterdam he took lessons at the Quillinusschool, the National Institute for the Training of Drawing Teachers and the National Academy. In 1929 he became a member of the artists' association 'De Onafhankelijken' and was allowed to participate in a spring exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Erfmann became known for his figure representations, often muscular women, or men in drag. He often worked at night because he had all kinds of side jobs during the day to provide for his livelihood. Then he would put on make-up, dress himself in women's clothes and paint his dream world of powerful women, in his own words 'manifestations that originate from myself'. These 'mastodons', as he called them, were his ideal image. His great misfortune was that this ideal image of women with thick upper arms and large lower legs – a beautiful face was secondary – was strongly disapproved of by his father, which made it impossible for Erfmann to enter into a relationship.
At a time when there was little social acceptance for transvestism, painting was an outlet for Erfmann to show his masculine and feminine sides on canvas. He also had photos taken of himself in women's clothing, which he hung up all over the house. All this was, according to him, 'actually an escape from the gruesome reality of life' and offered an escape from his depression and suicidal thoughts. Erfmann's style – in which he depicted his figures in an impassive pose rather schematically – had similarities with the Neue Sachlichkeit, a naive movement from the twenties in Germany,
Despite the artistic and financial success at the end of his life, Erfmann stubbornly continued to believe in his own 'unsellability'. He felt like an unappreciated artist and a lonely bachelor.
