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

Charlotte Salomon

1941–1943

Abstract painting of three women drawing, surrounded by flowers, easels, a chair, garments, and other objects.

To ward off depression while living as a refugee in France, Charlotte Salomon began telling the story of her life in the form of a drama, in hundreds of gouache paintings. This painting depicts her fictional alter-ego, Charlotte Kann, making drawings. The sunflowers, shoes, fruits, and chair are an homage to Vincent Van Gogh, who, like Salomon, struggled early in his career. Van Gogh is the only artist Salomon mentioned in the notes that she sometimes wrote on the back of the paintings.

Credits

Collection Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation. Charlotte Salomon.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.

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Creator Bio

Charlotte Salomon

1917–1943

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.