A nostalgic portrait of a boy, traced with various nuances of blue. It is hard to avoid the sight of beauty and loneliness uttered by this figure, with the black holes as eyes, like those of a specter from a different world, not ours. But it could be one of the shadows of humans that were hunted, killed, followed and condemned to death in the cultured Europe. The author of this emotional work that I admired at the Pomeranian Museum in Greifswald, is Rudolf Levy, himself running across Europe to escape the Nazi hunters but ended up dying on the way to Auschwitz, after being caught by the Nazi occupiers of Florence.
The story of Rudolf Levy is of many German Jewish intellectuals of the time. Considered one of the 'pioneers of modern art movement', he was born in Stettin and studied in Baden, at the Grand Ducal School of Decorative and Applied Arts and after that, in Munich. He later moved to study with Henri Matisse, and the French painters, particularly Cezanne, played a big influence on his art. His love for France wasn't as big as his dedication to Germany though. During WWI, he volunteered for the front and fought for Germany against France. For his war achievements, he, as many other Jewish warriors on behalf of Germany, received the Iron Cross.
After the war, he moved to Berlin, where he belonged to the German Secession movement. He was also on the board of directors and member of the jury of the Berlin Secession.
In 1933, he decided to flee Berlin to Paris, but once the Nazis approached Paris, he moved on to Italy, and Florence. During his wandering years, he continued to work, many portraits, mostly on commission, as well as still art. His paintings were owned by many German museums, but after 1937, his works were took off and probably ended up in the houses of many high ranking officials of the Nazi party.
From his family, his brother, Paul, a railroads engineer, was also murdered at Auschwitz. His sister, Käthe, survived and moved to Tel Aviv, where she died in the 1950s.
His works can still be found in some German museum - as it was the case in Greifswald, or auctioned by big houses in Europe or USA.
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