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Abraham Adolf Behrman (; also spelled Bermann; July 13, 1876 – August 1943) was a painter of interwar Poland best known for his outdoor paintings of Jewish
shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...
life as well as landscapes and group portraits. He spent most of his life in
Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
and was murdered during the liquidation of the Białystok Ghetto in
the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.


Biography

Behrman's place of birth is uncertain. He was born either in the town of Tukkum near Mitawa, or in
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(sources vary), the son of Róża and Markus Behrman, who arrived in Łódź sometime before the end of the century. Adolf studied art under Jakub Kacenbogen at his private Drawing School in Łódź before the 1900s. He continued his studies in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
in 1900–1904, first privately, then at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...
under Gabriel von Hackl. His paintings inspired the art critic Zygmunt Bomberg-Batowski to write: "Their diverse themes, the depiction – those are always picturesque. This modest artist always thoroughly and lovingly considers any issues brought by a particular theme, in order to best solve the problem of their presentation." A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Behrman's first commercial success was the selling of a series of paintings and drawings to an arts' collector in Łódź in 1905 which enabled him to travel to
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. He lived there, studied at the Academy and worked for the next five years. From 1924 to 1927, Behrman traveled to Palestine, Egypt and later Morocco. His landscapes originating from that period have become the most known part of his work. Behrman's palette became brighter in that period with the introduction of impressionist tones. In the 1930s, he returned to Poland and went to
Kazimierz Dolny Kazimierz Dolny () is a small historic town in eastern Poland, on the right (eastern) bank of the Vistula river, from Lublin, in Puławy County, Lublin Voivodeship. Historically it belongs to Lesser Poland, and in the past it was one of the most i ...
for the first time. There, he created one of his most important works, ''Interior of the Synagogue in Kazimierz Dolny''. Behrman was a painter of scenes from daily life of the Polish Jews and views of Jewish quarters. His 1914 painting ''The Jewish Bride'' was used for the cover of the book ''The Stories Our Parents Found Too Painful to Tell'', originally a memoir written in Yiddish titled ''The Annihilation of Bialystok Jewry'', by Rafael Rajzner and Henry R. Lew. His last major exhibit took place in 1935 in Łódź. After the Nazi German and Soviet
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
, Behrman escaped to
Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...
in the Russian zone of occupation. He was murdered in 1943 by the Nazis in the Białystok Ghetto around the time of the perilous Białystok Ghetto Uprising. Many of Behrman's paintings were destroyed in World War II. Some of his paintings can be found at the Historical Museum of Kraków and at the Łódź Museum.


Notes


References

* Dr. Waldemar Odorowski (author and editor), ''In Kazimierz the Vistula River spoke to them in Yiddish...: Jewish painters in the art colony of Kazimierz Dolny'', published by Muzeum Nadwislanskie,
Kazimierz Dolny Kazimierz Dolny () is a small historic town in eastern Poland, on the right (eastern) bank of the Vistula river, from Lublin, in Puławy County, Lublin Voivodeship. Historically it belongs to Lesser Poland, and in the past it was one of the most i ...
, Poland 2008
Official site
of artist and Jewish-life
chronicler A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, ...
Chaim Goldberg
Artfact, Auction house listingFindartinfo, Art auction result for Adolf Abraham BehrmannArtnet.com, Abraham Behrmann: Past Auction ResultsBehrman's works in Central Jewish Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Behrman, Adolf 1876 births 1943 deaths 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists 19th-century Polish Jews Jewish painters Białystok Ghetto inmates Latvian Jews who died in the Holocaust Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Artists from Łódź Polish male painters Artists from Białystok