POLIN Museum receives gift of Roman Kramsztyk’s drawings for its collection

POLIN Museum has recently acquired three drawings by Roman Kramsztyk, who, as one of the few Poles in the Ecole de Paris, was a participant of Polish and French artistic life at the turn of the previous century. He was also a co-founder of the Rytm Association of Polish Artists (1922).

This renowned and acclaimed artist was famous for his portraits and sanguine drawings of female nudes. One such nude, painted with delicate and subtle strokes, has been donated to the Museum by the artist’s cousin, Ms. Danuta Szachańska from Canada.

Another valuable addition to our fascinating collection of Kramsztyk’s works, expanding yearly thanks to the generosity of members of the Kramsztyk family living all over the world, is the Portrait of Irena Kramsztyk née Zylbermintz (1898-1980), wife of Andrzej Kramsztyk, a lawyer, and a portrait of their then teenage daughter, Joanna, from 1927.

The portraits are yet another extremely precious gift of Janusz and Krzysztof Prochaska, Joanna Kramsztyk’s sons. Some of the objects and documents donated by them earlier, connected with Andrzej Kramsztyk’s legal practice for instance, were presented as part of the exhibition Biographies of Things. Gifts in the Collection of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in 2013/2014.

Roman Kramsztyk (1885-1942), painter and drawer, was descended from two highly respected Jewish families – the Fajanses and the Kramsztyks, who were part of the Warsaw integrationist elite. Within two generations, they had transformed their way of life from a traditional one into that of the assimilated Jewish intelligentsia.