Henri Epstein (1891-1944), Landscape from Provence, 1938

Henri Epstein (1891-1944)
Title: Landscape from Provence
Technique: Watercolor, paper
Signature: "H. Epstein 1938"
Year: 1938
Dimensions: in st. p-p. 47 x 61 cm, 62 x 76 cm (with frame)
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist, inheritance to current owner in France
Condition: very good

Henryk Epstein was born in 1891 in Lodz, Poland. In 1910 he began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and from 1912 he studied in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. At first he was primarily interested in Post-Impressionism, but later entered the circle of Fauvist painters. During World War I, he volunteered for Polish military units. After the war, he stayed in the circle of Parisian avant-garde painters in Montparnasse, associated with the rotunda La Ruche. He became friends with Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutin and Marc Chagall, among others. Henry Epstein painted still lifes, nudes, figural compositions and landscapes. In France, he painted fishermen and their surroundings, ports, and still lifes depicting seafood, fish and birds. In the mid-1930s, he bought a farm near Épernon, where he often traveled. Because of his Jewish ancestry, he was arrested on February 23, 1944, and deported to the Drancy transit camp, from which his wife and daughter tried unsuccessfully to extract him. By transport No. 69 on March 7, 1944, he was taken to Auschwitz, where he died.