Adolf Feder Paintings

Adolphe Aizik Feder (Ukrainian, 1886-1943), alternate spelling Adolf Feder "Vieux Port, La Rochelle" Watercolor and pastel depicting a sailboat in the old harbor of La Rochelle, France. Hand signed and inscribed 'Feder La Rochelle' lower center 18 1/4 x 11 3/8 inches sight; 24 7/8 x 17 3/4 inches framed Adolphe Féder (1886 – 1943) was a Jewish-Ukrainian painter and illustrator. He moved to France in 1908, where he remained until his deportation and subsequent murder at the hands of the Vichy regime. Adolphe Feder is best-known today for the artwork he produced of those interned with him in the Drancy internment camp. Born to Jewish Ukrainian merchant parents, in 1905 Féder found himself involved in the revolutionary Bund Labor Movement. His involvement in the organization would force him to flee to Berlin, Germany at the age of 19. Following his time in Berlin, Féder moved to Geneva, Switzerland before moving to Paris, France in 1908 to study at the Académie Julian. At the Académie he studied painting and worked closely with the French Impressionist, Henri Matisse in his workshop. In 1926, Féder made a trip to British Mandate Palestine (Israel). On his trip he encountered many Judaic elements, which he painted. The trip's impact on him yielded many of his most notable paintings such as "Juif à barbe tenant un plateau" ("Bearded Jew holding a tray"). When Féder returned to Paris, he brought many of these paintings back with him, which garnered him recognition in the Parisian artistic community. Before Féder was sent to Auschwitz he painted prisoners and guards in the Drancy internment camp. When Nazi troops marched across France in 1942, Féder, aged 52, tried to get in contact with the French Resistance but was caught by the Pétain militia. He and his wife were arrested on 10 June 1942 and imprisoned in Cherche-Midi prison; he was transferred to the Drancy internment camp in September 1942. In Drancy, Féder continued to paint, creating portraits of those around him such as the other prisoners and guards. His paintings stopped with his deportation to the Auschwitz concentration camp on 13 December 1943 where he was murdered. Féder's wife, Sima Féder, donated Féder's works from inside Drancy to the Ghetto Fighters' House upon her death in 1967. Féder's success came in 1912 when his landscape works were displayed at the Salon d'Automne. He continued to paint following this including a series of 45 illustrations created for a book of poetry by French poet Arthur Rimbaud. The book received a limited run of 350 copies in 1924, but was commended for its watercolor illustrations. When Féder's work appeared in the Fearon Galleries in 1923, his work received great praise. A monograph on Féder was written in 1929 by Gustave Kahn. (also known as Aizik Féder or Айзик Федер) He was associated with The School of Paris, Ecole de Paris, which was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a center of Western art in the early decades of the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940 the city drew artists from all over the world and became a centre for artistic activity. School of Paris was used to describe this loose community, particularly of non-French artists, centered in the cafes, salons and shared workspaces and galleries of Montparnasse. Before World War I, a group of expatriates in Paris created art in the styles of Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism. The group included artists like Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Piet Mondrian. Associated French artists included Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes. The term "School of Paris" was used in 1925 by André Warnod to refer to the many foreign-born artists who had migrated to Paris. The term soon gained currency, often as a derogatory label by critics who saw the foreign artists—many of whom were Jewish—as a threat to the purity of French art. Art critic Louis Vauxcelles, noted for coining the terms "Fauvism" and "Cubism", Waldemar George, himself a French Jew, in 1931 lamented that the Ecole de paris, School of Paris name "allows any artist to pretend he is French. it refers to French tradition but instead annihilates it. The artists working in Paris between World War I and World War II experimented with various styles including Cubism, Orphism, Surrealism and Dada. Foreign and French artists working in Paris included Jean Arp, Joan Miro, Constantin Brancusi, Raoul Dufy, Tsuguharu Foujita, artists from Belarus like Michel Kikoine, Pinchus Kremegne, and Jacques Lipchitz, the Polish artist Marek Szwarc and others such as Russian-born prince Alexis Arapoff. A significant subset, the Jewish artists, came to be known as the Jewish School of Paris...