Hanna Eshel

Hanna Eshel was an internationally recognized artist whose work evolved over many years.

A fifth-generation Israeli born in Jerusalem in 1926, Eshel first studied at the Bezalel School of Art. She moved to Paris in 1952, completing advanced studies in painting and fresco at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the École des Beaux-Arts, where she was awarded the first prize in the Concours de France. It was during her 20th year in France that she created the majority of her oil paintings, paper collages and burlap collages and paintings.

As Eshel’s art grew more and more three-dimensional she began to experiment with other sculpting media. Many of her burlap collage paintings contained clefts, fissures and holes, some of which are double-sided works. Her search for a material with soul is what brought her to Carrara, Italy.

A proposed two-month sojourn turned into six years, a time during which Eshel created many original marble sculptures. Her 1996 autobiography, Michelangelo and Me: Six Years in My Carrara Haven, tells the story of her love of marble and how she learned to work with the material as one of a family of sculptors at Atelier Nicoli.

In the late 1970s, the world's art mecca moved to New York and so did Eshel, along with hundreds of paintings and 20,000 pounds of marble sculpture.

Eshel’s art has been exhibited in several Salons in Paris, and some of her sculptures are currently on permanent display in Israel.

Find original Hanna Eshel art on 1stDibs.