Bakers,
Mixed media on paper,
43X55 cm.
Signed.
Provenance: The Aleksandrowicz family, Krakow.
Prof. Dov Ryszard Aleksandrowicz was born in Krakow, Poland in 1925, the son of David and Rosalia (nee Groner) Aleksandrowicz. The Aleksandrowicz family was a well-known and respected family in Krakow; David’s, mother, Regina, who was widowed at a young age and left with several young children, founded a small stationery store that David and his eldest brother, Sigmund, developed into one of the largest paper distribution companies in Europe. Today, a plaque in front of the building at the corner of Déuga Street and Basztowa Streets marks the location of the stationery store and paper company.
Regina Aleksandrowicz’s paper shop was further developed and her daughter Róża now had a shop with painting accessories that sold art supplies, becoming an important place on the artistic and cultural map of Krakow. Pilgrimages of artists made their way here, and artists, like artists, did not always have cash at their disposal. Often, for paper and painting media, they paid the owners by leaving them their work. The Aleksandrowicz family supported and was painted by eminent painters, such as Wojciech Weiss, or Jacek Malczewski. Malczewski’s painting of Regina’s daughter Rose (Róża), “The Finished Song: Portrait of Rose Aleksandrowicz” hangs in the Polish National Gallery. Leopold Gottlieb sketched Rose as well. Another favorite of the family was the famed Polish artist, Tadeusz Makowski, and his paintings of children. When World War II broke out, the family escaped to Lwów, (annexed by the Soviet Union) just before the German invasion of Poland, and were placed in a work camp in the Ural Mountains until the Soviet Union joined the war against Germany in June 1941. After being released from the camp, the family made its way to Kazakhstan, where Dov and his siblings attended a Russian school for a year. They then made their way to Tehran and eventually to what was then Palestine, a British protectorate. A physician, child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst by training, Dov was also an avid art collector, a love that was ingrained in him by his parents and aunt, Rose, who supported the artistic community in Krakow. Despite having to escape their home and leaving most of their possessions behind, the family was able to take with them several works of art, including one by Tadeusz Makowski. The painting hung in Dov’s home for many years, and brought him a deep sense of connection to his family’s history and to Krakow. Dov visited Krakow frequently and supported the development of the psychiatric department in the Jagellonian University. |
