Leon Abramowicz (born 18 March 1889 in

Czernowitz Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivtsi serv ...

; died 15 February 1978 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was a Jewish Austrian painter who emigrated from Nazi Austria.

Early life

Abramowicz was born into a Jewish family in

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

in the

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

. His father worked as a butcher. His brother was Serge Abranovic (stage name; died 1942 in Warsaw), celebrated as the "Caruso of operetta". Abramowicz studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and from 1912 to 1914 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Karl Raupp and

Ludwig von Herterich Ludwig von Herterich (13 October 1856, Ansbach - 25 December 1932, Etzenhausen, today in Dachau) was a German painter and art teacher. He is best known as a painter of portraits and history paintings and is a representative of the Munich Schoo ...

Career as an artist

After serving in the First World War as a soldier in the Austrian army, Abramowicz lived in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and France and, from the 1920s, in

, where he worked as a freelance painter. From 1933 to 1935, he studied at the Vienna Academy under

Karl Sterrer Karl Sterrer (4 December 188510 June 1972) was an Austrian painter and engraver. Biography Karl Sterrer was the son of the sculptor Carl Sterrer. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna under Alois Delug and Christian Griepenkerl. Equal ...

. He then settled in Vienna as a freelance painter and graphic artist. He was soon successful and received commissions from the US, especially for portraits. This enabled him to rent a studio in Vienna's Prinz-Eugen-Straße and buy an apartment for himself and his wife Maria, née Prenosyl (* 1907), at Schottenbastei 16 in Vienna's city center.

Nazi era confiscations and internment

After

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

, the annexation of Austria to National Socialist Germany in March 1938, Abramowicz and his wife were persecuted due to anti-Jewish laws in Nazi Austria. Abramowicz fled to France on 24 May 1938, and his wife followed him in January 1939. Their apartment and its entire contents were confiscated in 1938. The inventory of the apartment and studio, including the entire artistic oeuvre since 1918, an estimated 600 oil paintings and 7,000 works on paper, copies after old masters, magnificent original costumes that Abramowicz had used for his works, a small collection of paintings by modern painters and several projection and photographic cameras were confiscated and forcibly sold. Their whereabouts are unknown. After fleeing, the couple first came to

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...

, who had a strong artistic influence on him. In 1940, Abramowicz and his wife were taken separately to internment camps. However, with the permission of the prefecture of Grenoble, they were given a refugee apartment as victims of the Nazis. In July 1943, the wife was captured by the Nazis and taken to the Gurs concentration camp. Abramowicz was arrested during a raid in August 1943 and sent to a camp in Toulouse. He and his wife managed to escape and lived underground with the help of a Jewish refugee committee until the liberation of the country.

Postwar

Abramowicz then worked as a freelance painter in Paris. In 1950, he and his wife returned to Vienna, where they lived in seclusion and Abramowicz worked as a painter. Until 1957, he studied again as a guest student in the painting master classes of Josef Dobrowsky and Robin Christian Andersen at the Vienna Academy of Arts. Stylistically influenced by Bonnard,

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

and

Anton Faistauer Anton Faistauer (14 February 1887, Sankt Martin bei Lofer – 13 February 1930, Vienna) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. Life He came from a family of farmers, grew up near Maishofen and originally wanted to be a priest. After a meeting ...

, Abramowitz mainly painted still lifes, portraits and landscapes.

Selected works

* ''Stillleben mit Rosen und Apfel'' (Öl auf Pappe, 45 × 55 cm, 1922; Museum Kunst der Verlorenen Generation, Salzburg) * ''Porträt Maria Abramowicz'' (Öl auf Karton, 381 × 47,3 cm, um 1948) * ''Selbstporträt'' (Öl auf Leinwand, 100 × 65 cm) * ''Blumenstillleben'' (Öl auf Leinwand, 80 × 60 cm; um 1935/1938) * ''Das Künstlerehepaar Abramowicz'' (Öl auf Leinwand, 63 × 46 cm) * ''Blumenstillleben'' (Öl auf Leinwand, 62,2 × 42,5 cm)

Literature

* Karl Heinz Ritschel: ''Leon Abramowicz. 1889–1978. Ein Maler aus der „verschollenen Generation“.'' Winter Verlag, Salzburg, 1980 * Sophie Lillie: ''Was einmal war. Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens.'' Czernin Verlag, Wien, 2003, S. 29/39

References

External links

Abramowicz, Leon bei Porta Polonica

Leon Abramowicz bei Artnet

Leo Abramowicz bei Terenchin Hudon NY

Leo Abramowicz bei Bonhams
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abramowicz, Leo 1889 births 1978 deaths Austrian painters Jewish painters Emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss People from Chernivtsi Bukovina Jews