Date : 15/03/2024 Lot 14
Georges Ascher (Polish 1884-1943): 'Two Washer Women', oil on canvas signed, titled and signed verso 40cm x 50cm
Notes: Ascher was a cousin of the painter Roman Kramsztyk. He studied architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology and then continued his studies in Germany. During the war, which set Poland against the Red Army (1919-1921), he joined the Polish army alongside Marshal Piłsudski, and was wounded during the battle of Lwow. After the Polish authorities decorated him, Ascher moved to Lwow and then to Warsaw. He married and became an architect. Moving to Paris in 1925 he devoted himself to art. In 1937, he left his apartment in Paris with his wife and daughter for La Ciotat, where he painted many landscapes. In 1943, Georges and his wife were arrested and sent to the Gurs internment camp. They were deported on convoy number 60 and were died in Auschwitz. Much of Ascher’s work was destroyed in his studio while he was arrested.
Jewish Artists of the School of Paris 1905-1939 - 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.
SOLD £1600