Gouache from Leben? Oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theater? An Operetta), #4351

Artist Charlotte Salomon was born to a cultured, upper-middle-class family in Berlin. Despite antisemitic policies that restricted access to art academies and guilds, in 1935 Salomon attended art school in Berlin. The situation in Germany worsened, and in 1939 Salomon’s parents sent her to France, where she lived with her grandparents. During this time, Salomon created an extensive series of paintings and writings, titled Life or Theater? An Operetta, which chronicled the difficult history of her family. Salomon married Alexander Nagler in 1943, and later that year, she and her husband were deported to Auschwitz where both were murdered. Prior to her deportation, Salomon had given her paintings to a French doctor to safeguard throughout the war; her parents later reclaimed them. The paintings are now held at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam.