Erich Conrad Leonor Friedrich Kips was born on 17 January 1869 in Berlin and was a German painter and illustrator known for landscape and cityscape subjects. He studied at the Unterrichtsanstalt am Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin with Emil Doepler the Younger and Max Friedrich Koch, then continued his training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, where he worked in the portrait class of Caspar Ritter.

In 1893 Kips traveled to the United States to paint decorations in the German pavilion at the Chicago World’s Fair, producing award-winning designs in collaboration with Otto Lessing. He subsequently undertook a three-year study trip through Italy and later refined his skills at the Académie Julian in Paris under William Bouguereau, Gabriel Ferrier, and Eugène Girardet.

From 1899 Kips exhibited at the Glaspalast in Munich and from 1901 at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. He was a member of the Association of Berlin Artists and the Association of German Illustrators from 1911 until his death. His international activity included participation in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, where he received a bronze medal. He also appeared in the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich from 1940 to 1942.

Kips traveled extensively throughout his life, including a five-month trip around the world in 1930 and a northern voyage via Scotland, Iceland, and Spitzbergen to Norway in 1932. He died on 26 September 1945 in Berlin-Lichterfelde.