Lot 96

Grigorij Musatov (1889 - 1941) A JEWISH FAMILY

Originally a Russian painter, Grigory Musatov came to Bohemia with an emigrant wave in 1920. Thanks to the recommendation of his friend Jan Zrzavý, he assimilated on the local art scene and became a member of the Umělecká beseda, with which he regularly exhibited. Grigory Musatov used Impressionist tendencies to create extremely humanly records of experiences shrouded in a dreamy haze. They often reflected children's joy and naivety, or in stark contrast to the weight of human existence and social criticism. Such is the case with the record of the Jewish family, a subject to which he has repeatedly returned, as he found it very difficult to bear the horrors of war and persecution of the Jews, because Musatov's wife Věra was from a family of Orthodox Jews. The poster of his last exhibition from 1941 bore the obligatory warning "Jews are not allowed to enter".