Alice HALICKA
January 2, 2019
Aron HABER BERON
January 2, 2019

Nathan GRUNSWEIGH

CRACOVIE (POLOGNE) 1880 – 1956 PARIS

Until very recently, little was known of Nathan Grunsweigh. His fate, and that of his family, remained a mystery. He was born in Krakow in 1880, and sometime between 1901 and 1915, he immigrated to Antwerp, Belgium. A Few years later, he settled in the western suburb of Le Vésinet, France with his wife Fanny and their three children. His work revolved around the landscapes of his neighborhood and of Le Vésinet: the villas by the park, the lake, the Croissy bridge, or  the Le Select cinema near the train station. 
 
In 1926, he had an exhibition at the Gallery Pierre. He exhibited around twenty paintings of landscapes of the suburbs and still life. Gustave Kahn wrote of him in the Mercure de France on June 15, 1926,(...) “Grunsweigh ‘paints the suburbs of Paris with love.’” Critics noted his nuanced emotion, modesty, and honesty, calling him a sincere, conscientious, and knowledgeable artist.(...)
 
Nathan Grunsweigh, and his entire family escaped deportation during the war. He died of old age in 1956 and was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery.

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Stories of Jewish Artists of the School of Paris 1905-1939

FRENCH-ENGLISH

Capitale des arts, le Paris des années 1905-1939 attire les artistes du monde entier. De cette période de foisonnement, un terme est resté, celui d'Ecole de Paris, qui recouvre une grande diversité d'expression artistique. Dans ce brassage dont Montparnasse est le creuset, un groupe se distingue : celui des artistes juifs venus de Russie, de Pologne et d'Europe centrale. Si leurs styles sont variés, un destin commun les rassemble : ils fuient l'antisémitisme de leur pays d'origine. Certains ont connu la célébrité dès les années 1920, tels Soutine, Lipchitz ou Chagall. D'autres n'ont pas eu le temps ou la chance d'y accéder. Près de la moitié a péri dans les camps de concentration nazis.

From 1905 to 1939, Paris attracted artists from all over the globe as the capital of the art world. This period of artistic proliferation became known as the School of Paris, and includes a great diversity of artistic expression. Within the teeming art world centred on Montparnasse, one group set itself apart: Jewish artists from Russia, Poland, and Central Europe. Although their styles were diverse, they shared the common fate of fleeing anti-Semitic persecutions in their home countries. Some became famous in the 1920s, such as Soutine, Lipchitz, and Chagall, while others did not have the time or the luck to gain renown. Nearly half of these artists died in Nazi concentration camps.