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 is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

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

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

and a café.

Biography

Anna Ticho was born in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

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

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

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

in an art school under the directorship of Ernst Nowak. In 1912, Ticho and her mother immigrated from Vienna to what was then the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Ticho's fiancé,

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

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 Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

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 exposu ...

, 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, was built around 1864, apparently for the Nashashibis, 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

. Ticho died on 1 March 1980.

Art career

Ticho had several solo exhibitions in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 can be found in major museums around the world.

Awards and recognition

* In 1970, Ticho received the Yakir Yerushalayim (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award. City of Jerusalem official website * In 1975, Ticho was awarded the Willem

Sandberg Prize The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art refers to a prize for art and design awarded at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, with a particular focus on Israeli art. The prize was inaugurated in 1968 with funds from an anonymous New York City, New York–based ...

for Israeli Art by the

, Jerusalem. * In 1980, she was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

, for painting (with Pinchas Litvinovsky).

Selected solo exhibitions

*1959 - Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem, Israel *1959 - Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam *1962 - Baltimore Museum of Art *1964 -

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

*1964 - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam *1967 - Rose Art Museum,

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

, Waltham, Massachusetts *1970 - Jewish Museum (Manhattan), New york *1972 -

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

, Oxford, England *1973 -

, Jerusalem *1974 - Tel Aviv Museum of Art *1978 -

, Jerusalem *1983 - Jewish Museum (Manhattan), New York *2010 - Hecht Museum,

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

, Israel *2019 -

, Ticho House, Jerusalem

References

External links