Alexandre ALTMANN
December 31, 2018
Isaac ANTCHER
January 1, 2019

Bernard ALTSCHULER

PARIS 1901 – DEPORTED TO AUSCHWITZ 1944

From his earliest childhood, Bernard Altschuler had a passion for painting and covered the walls of his bedroom with reproductions of Rembrandt’s paintings. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the Académie Frochot, taking a special interest in portraits. In 1942, he found refuge in Nice, where he continued to paint. On March 27, 1944, he was deported on convoy number 70. He was murdered in Auschwitz. Most of his work has disappeared. His family in Paris kept some of his paintings.

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.