Oil on canvas; 149.9 x 76.2 cm.

Jankel Adler was a Polish painter and printmaker. Adler was strongly influenced by Picasso and Léger. He enjoyed experimenting with materials, for example sand admixtures. He often painted Jewish subjects, and painted some few abstract compositions.

He was born as the seventh of ten children in Tuszyn, a suburb of Łódź. In 1912 he began training as an engraver with his uncle in Belgrade. He moved in 1914 to Germany where he lived for a time with his sister in Barmen. There he studied at the college of arts and crafts with professor Gustav Wiethücher.

From 1918-1919 he went back to Łódź, where he was joint founder of "Jung Jidysz", a group of avant-garde artists. In 1920 he returned briefly to Berlin; in 1921 he returned to Barmen, and in 1922 he moved to Düsseldorf. There he became a teacher at the Academy of Arts, and became acquainted with Paul Klee, who influenced his work. A painting by Adler received a gold medal at the exhibition “German art Düsseldorf” in 1928.

In 1929 and 1930 he went on study trips in Mallorca and other places in Spain. During the election campaign of July 1932 he published with a group of leftist artists and intellectuals an urgent appeal against the policy of the National Socialists and for communism. As a modern artist, and especially as a Jew, he faced persecution under Hitler's regime which took power in 1933. In that year, two of his pictures were displayed by the Nazis at the Mannheimer Arts Center as examples of degenerate art, and Adler left Germany, staying in Paris where he regarded his exile consciously as political resistance against the fascist regime in Germany. In the years that followed, he made numerous journeys to Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Soviet Union. In 1937, twenty-five of his works were seized from public collections by the Nazis and four were shown in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition in Munich.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he volunteered for the Polish army that had been reconstituted in France; in 1941 he was discharged for health reasons and lived thereafter in Kirkcudbright in Scotland. In 1943 he moved to London. Died in Whitley Cottage near Aldbourne on April 25, 1949 at the age of 53 years and with the bitter knowledge that none of his nine brothers and sisters had survived the Holocaust.

Tags:   adler painter 20th century jewish polish german 1927 1920s judith with the head of holofernes christie's expressionism bible religion figure weimar degenerate jankel adler

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Mixed media, oil, sand on canvas; 120 x 110 cm.

Jankel Adler was a Polish painter and printmaker. Adler was strongly influenced by Picasso and Léger. He enjoyed experimenting with materials, for example sand admixtures. He often painted Jewish subjects, and painted some few abstract compositions.

He was born as the seventh of ten children in Tuszyn, a suburb of Łódź. In 1912 he began training as an engraver with his uncle in Belgrade. He moved in 1914 to Germany where he lived for a time with his sister in Barmen. There he studied at the college of arts and crafts with professor Gustav Wiethücher.

From 1918-1919 he went back to Łódź, where he was joint founder of "Jung Jidysz", a group of avant-garde artists. In 1920 he returned briefly to Berlin; in 1921 he returned to Barmen, and in 1922 he moved to Düsseldorf. There he became a teacher at the Academy of Arts, and became acquainted with Paul Klee, who influenced his work. A painting by Adler received a gold medal at the exhibition “German art Düsseldorf” in 1928.

In 1929 and 1930 he went on study trips in Mallorca and other places in Spain. During the election campaign of July 1932 he published with a group of leftist artists and intellectuals an urgent appeal against the policy of the National Socialists and for communism. As a modern artist, and especially as a Jew, he faced persecution under Hitler's regime which took power in 1933. In that year, two of his pictures were displayed by the Nazis at the Mannheimer Arts Center as examples of degenerate art, and Adler left Germany, staying in Paris where he regarded his exile consciously as political resistance against the fascist regime in Germany. In the years that followed, he made numerous journeys to Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Soviet Union. In 1937, twenty-five of his works were seized from public collections by the Nazis and four were shown in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition in Munich.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he volunteered for the Polish army that had been reconstituted in France; in 1941 he was discharged for health reasons and lived thereafter in Kirkcudbright in Scotland. In 1943 he moved to London. Died in Whitley Cottage near Aldbourne on April 25, 1949 at the age of 53 years and with the bitter knowledge that none of his nine brothers and sisters had survived the Holocaust.

Tags:   jankel adler adler painter jewish jew 20th century german polish 1927 1920s sabbath public collection interior table expressionism double portrait portrait weimar degenerate

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Tags:   pieter aersten aersten painter 16th century dutch 1575 apostles peter and john 1570s hermitage group religion realism street scene

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German painter and graphic artist working, he was the leading artist and guiding spirit of the Danube School. His training is unknown, but his early work was influenced by Cranach and Dürer's art. Mingled with these German impressions was a knowledge of the art of Mantegna. Yet in spite of these varied influences Altdorfer's style always remained personal. Most of his paintings are religious works, but he was one of the first artists to show an interest in landscape as an independent genre. He was the first European to paint forests, sunsets, and picturesque ruins, in which he represented man as part of nature, allied with trees, rocks, mountains, and clouds and often resembling them.

The fantastic element that pervaded his paintings was also prominent in his drawings, most of which were done with black and white lines on brown or blue-gray paper. His engravings and woodcuts, usually miniatures, were distinguished by their playful imaginativeness. From 1526 until his death Altdorfer was employed as town architect of Regensburg. No architectural work by him is known, but his interest in architecture and his skill in handling intricate problems of perspective are demonstrated by his Birth of the Virgin (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).

Tags:   albrecht altdorfer altdorfer painter 1509 1500s german the arrest of christ religion christ northern renaissance renaissance group

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German painter and graphic artist working, he was the leading artist and guiding spirit of the Danube School. His training is unknown, but his early work was influenced by Cranach and Dürer's art. Mingled with these German impressions was a knowledge of the art of Mantegna. Yet in spite of these varied influences Altdorfer's style always remained personal. Most of his paintings are religious works, but he was one of the first artists to show an interest in landscape as an independent genre. He was the first European to paint forests, sunsets, and picturesque ruins, in which he represented man as part of nature, allied with trees, rocks, mountains, and clouds and often resembling them.

The fantastic element that pervaded his paintings was also prominent in his drawings, most of which were done with black and white lines on brown or blue-gray paper. His engravings and woodcuts, usually miniatures, were distinguished by their playful imaginativeness. From 1526 until his death Altdorfer was employed as town architect of Regensburg. No architectural work by him is known, but his interest in architecture and his skill in handling intricate problems of perspective are demonstrated by his Birth of the Virgin (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).

Tags:   albrecht altdorfer altdorfer painter 16th century german 1513 1510s nativity religion building madonna northern renaissance group danube school

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