Anna Ticho (; 27 October 1894 – 1 March 1980) was an Israeli artist who became famous for her drawings of the Jerusalem hills. Beit Ticho, the house in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

that she shared with her husband is now a branch of the Israel Museum and a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non ...

Biography

Anna Ticho was born in Brno,

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The m ...

, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

). Her mother's name was Bertha. At the age of 15, she began to study drawing in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in an art school under the directorship of Ernst Nowak. In 1912, Ticho and her mother

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

from Vienna to what was then the

Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem ( ota, مُتَصَرِّف قدسی مُتَصَرِّفلغ, ; ar, متصرفية القدس الشريف, ), also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was an Ottoman district with special administrative status ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Ticho's fiancé, ophthalmologist Avraham Albert Ticho (1883–1960), who was also her first cousin, had arrived from Vienna four months prior after learning that the Leman'an Zion eye clinic needed a doctor to run it. They married on 7 November 1912 in Jerusalem. The Tichos were exiled to Damascus in December 1917, just days before the British conquest of Jerusalem. There Dr. Ticho entered active service as a medical office in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Anna worked as a nurse. She developed a severe case of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

, and during her recovery, Ticho returned to her art by sketching landscape scenes, foreshadowing later mastery of this genre. After the war, the Tichos returned to Jerusalem via a long and circuitous route. In December 1918, Dr. Ticho established a private clinic north of the ruined Lemaan Zion building and Anna worked as her husband's assistant. In 1924, the couple purchased a large house surrounded by gardens. Dr. Ticho saw patients in his eye clinic on the lower floor and the couple lived on the second floor. The mansion, known today as

Ticho House Ticho House ( he, בית טיכו, ''Beit Tikho'') is a historical home in Jerusalem, now a museum administered as part of the Israel Museum. It was one of the first homes built outside the Old City walls in the 19th century. History Ticho Hou ...

, was built around 1864, apparently for the

Nashashibi Nashashibi ( ar, النشاشيبي; transliteration, Al-Nashāshībī) is the name of a prominent Palestinian family based in Jerusalem. After the First World War, during the British period, Raghib al-Nashashibi was Mayor of Jerusalem (1920–1 ...

s, a prominent local family. Before the Tichos lived there it was the family home of the antiquities dealer and forger Wilhelm Moses Shapira. The Tichos hosted local and British government officials in the house, as well as many artists, writers, academics and intellectuals. In 1950, when Dr. Ticho retired, the couple purchased a home in Motza Ilit where Anna could concentrate on her drawing and painting. Toward the end of her life, she willed the Ticho house, her art collectionincluding many of her own worksand her husband's extensive Judaica collection to the Israel Museum. Ticho died on 1 March 1980.

Art career

Ticho had several solo exhibitions in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

and in Europe from the 1920s through the 1940s. An even greater number of her individual exhibitions took place in the years following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. While the dramatically different light of the Middle East and the starkness of the landscape inhibited her artistic pursuits at first, in the 1930s Ticho went back to drawing and painting. It was then that she produced many of the distinctive drawings of the hills of Jerusalem and portraits of local people for which she became well known. Today, Ticho's drawings and

watercolors Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

can be found in major museums around the world.

Awards and recognition

* In 1970, Ticho received the

Yakir Yerushalayim Yakir Yerushalayim ( he, יַקִּיר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם; en, Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) is an annual citizenship prize in Jerusalem, inaugurated in 1967. The prize is awarded annually by the municipality of the City of Jerusalem to o ...

(Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award. City of Jerusalem official website * In 1975, Ticho was awarded the Willem Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art by the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. * In 1980, she was awarded the Israel Prize, for painting.

Selected solo exhibitions

*1959 - Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem, Israel *1959 - Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam *1962 -

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

*1964 - Art Institute of Chicago *1964 -

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located a ...

, Rotterdam *1967 -

Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from the permanent col ...

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

, Waltham, Massachusetts *1970 -

Jewish Museum (Manhattan) The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unite ...

, New york *1972 - Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England *1973 - Israel Museum, Jerusalem *1974 -

Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...

*1978 - Israel Museum, Jerusalem *1983 -

, New York *2010 -

Hecht Museum The Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum is a museum located on the grounds of the University of Haifa, Israel. History The Hecht Museum was established in 1984 by Reuben Hecht, director of Dagon Silos and a founding member of the University of Haifa ...

University of Haifa The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming ...

, Israel *2019 - Israel Museum,

, Jerusalem

References

External links