Henryk Gotlib (10 January 1890 – 30 December 1966) was a Polish painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and writer, who settled in England during World War II and made a significant contribution to modern British art. He was profoundly influenced by Rembrandt, and the European

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painters. Gotlib was a leading member of the Polish avant-garde 'Formist' movement in the

interwar Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

Life

Gotlib was born into a middle-class family in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, where he gained his earliest artistic training at the

Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public institution of higher education located in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Pol ...

from 1908 to 1910. Due to pressure from his parents, he also read law at the university in Krakow during this period, although it was clear from an early age that he had a profound passion for art. His earliest portraits of his mother, in which he experimented with a variety of styles including that of Vuillard and late Cubism, date back to when he was just 16 years old. He continued his artistic training at the

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

in Vienna (1911–13) and later at the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Academy of Fine Art under

Angelo Jank Angelo Jank (30 October 1868 in Munich – 9 October 1940 in Munich) was a German animal painter, illustrator and member of the Munich Secession. He was the son of the German painter Christian Jank and specialized in scenes with horses and rider ...

(1913–14). It was during this period that he was exposed to European

masters, falling under the influence of expressionists like

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...

and Egon Schiele. During his lifetime, Gotlib exhibited extensively throughout Europe with much success. His first one-man show – in Warsaw in 1918 – was organised by the Society of Polish Artists whom he joined at the end of World War I. The following year, Gotlib returned to Krakow and became a leading member of the Polish avant-garde 'Formist' movement, exhibiting in Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1922, the Van Gogh Gallery in Amsterdam held a one-man exhibition of his work. He lived in France, mainly in Paris, during the years 1923 through 1929, when he participated in exhibitions at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

and the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

. In 1930, he joined the Group of Ten after returning to Poland, where he remained until 1933. He went travelling once more from 1933, spending long periods in Italy, Greece and Spain, and met his Scottish wife, Janet Blanche Mareham, in 1938 during a visit to London. With the outbreak of World War II shortly after this, Gotlib settled in England, where he remained until his death. During his first year in England, Gotlib was invited to join the

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

, which had no foreign members at that time. This was a great honour, indeed an indication of his prolific talent as a painter. Gotlib was also a talented writer. During his years in Paris he was art correspondent to the Warsaw Times, and his book ''Polish Painting'' was published in 1942. It tells us of his contemporary Polish artists and Polish artists through the ages. ''Polish Painting'' also provides some information of the 'Formist' movement, and includes a detail of his painting ''Warsaw, September 1939'' that he was moved to paint after the German army attacked Warsaw. In the same year that this book was published, Gotlib participated in several important exhibitions in Britain, including 'Exhibition of Works of Polish and Czechoslovak Artists', at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. He exhibited extensively in Britain from 1940 onwards and examples of his work can be found in many public collections (see heading 'public collections' below).

Formism

Gotlib was a leading member of the Formist movement; an avant-garde art movement in Poland which originated around 1917–18 and lasted until around 1923–24. The movement was started by a group of energetic young artists, writers and poets who essentially pursued a passion for anti-naturalism. According to Gotlib, Formism "proclaimed an absolute break with the past and the rebirth of art n Poland" Polish art at the time was traditionally concerned with history painting and anecdote, emphasising the importance of narrative in art. With the deformation of nature, subordination of forms, abolishment of a single viewpoint and crude colouring, "the formist storm" attacked academicism and established a front against naturalism and the imitation of nature.

Later years

As a figurative artist, he was largely neglected after the rise in popularity of abstract expressionism in the 1950s, and his final years were shadowed by depression, which is reflected in the sombre canvases from this period:

"Typically one thinks of oil paintings of nudes, dark in tone, grainy, with impasto, in texture, broad and bold in treatment…in the tradition of German expressionism".

In 1964, he was included in the exhibition 'Fifty years of British Art' at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. Indeed, his contribution to British art is well known. In

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation s ...

in 1942,

Tancred Borenius Carl Tancred Borenius (14 July 1885, Vyborg – 2 September 1948, Coombe Bisset) was a Finnish art historian working in England, who became the first professor of the history of art at University College London. He was a prolific author, and recog ...

wrote: "A highly personal sense of colour in a lovely, luminous totality gives the keynote to his art"; Michel Strauss commented on the "strength and sensitivity" of his work in the same Journal in 1961. Gotlib died in

Godstone Godstone is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, east of Reigate at the junction of the A22 and A25 roads, near the M25 motorway and the North Downs. Godstone railway station is separated from it by agricultural land. Blindley H ...

, Surrey, England, at the age of 76. After his death he was acknowledged with an important Arts Council retrospective exhibition at the

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...

, Edinburgh, in July and August 1970, curated by Douglas Hall. This major exhibition toured to the Southampton Art Gallery, September 1970; and the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, October–November 1970. Another major retrospective of his work took place in 1980 at the

National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

, Poland.

Public collections

* His "powerful" painting ''Rembrandt in Heaven'' is in the collection of the

, London. "Altogether I do not learn more from anybody, except Rembrandt",Henryk Gotlib, quoted in ''Henryk Gotlib 1890–1966: A European Master'' (London: Boundary Gallery, 1988). wrote Gotlib in a letter to John Nowell, January 1964. * A painted plaster self-portrait entitled ''Henryk Gotlib'' is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and is on display in Room 31. *Also in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery are 64 pencil drawings of international writers, scientists, diplomats and politicians, sketched by the artist at the international conference of scientists held in 1941 by the

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

. *The Arts Council acquired the painting ''The Boat'' in 1961. *''Standing Nude'' is in the collection of the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, Cardiff *The

Courtauld Gallery The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the his ...

owns a small collection of paintings by Gotlib.

The Ruth Borchard Collection

A 1955/6 self-portrait by Gotlib is in the Ruth Borchard Collection – an important collection of 100 British self-portraits. They were collected by

Ruth Borchard Ruth Borchard (1910–2000) was a British writer who created a collection of self-portraits made by 100 modern British artists, the Ruth Borchard Collection. A notable work of Borchard's was '' John Stuart Mill: the Man''. Early and personal l ...

– who famously would not pay more than 21 guineas for any one picture, irrespective of the artist's fame – during the 1950s and 1960s. Alongside Gotlib, the collection includes some of the most prominent figures of twentieth-century British art. ''Face to Face: British Self-Portraits in the Twentieth Century'' by Philip Vann, published in 2004, is a detailed examination of this remarkable collection.

Writings by Gotlib

*''Polish Painting'', London: Minerva, 1942. *''Travels of a Painter'', commissioned by a Warsaw publisher but interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Written in 1938/39.

Notes and references

Tate Collection, description of Gotlib's ''Rembrandt in Heaven''Gotlib in the National Portrait Gallery, LondonGotlib in the University of Warwick Art Collection
*A selection of paintings by Henryk Gotlib at th
Boundary Gallery
London *Gotlib's works i
Central Jewish Library3 artworks by Henryk Gotlib
at th
Ben Uri
site