Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter; Oil on Canvas, 64×74 cm

Arthur Kolnik

Arthur Kolnik was born in 1898 in Stanislaw, Galicia, to a Lithuanian father and a Viennese mother. Between 1908 – 1914 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. After his graduation he worked in the studio of painter Józef Mehoffer. During the First World War he was drafted and served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. Consequently, he was wounded in battle and admitted to a hospital in Vienna, where he met painter Isidor Kaufmann. Due to this encounter,  he participated in an art exhibition at the Czernowitz Industrial Museum in 1918. Two years later, he moved to New York, where he exhibited his works alongside painter Reuven Rubin. In 1931 he moved to Paris, where he got married to his first wife and had two children. He worked as a caricaturist of a fashion magazine, and during his free time created numerous wood-cuts. In 1948, when the Second World War ended, he received a French citizenship. He became a member of the French Jewish Painters and Sculptors Association.

His works include numerous ‘Jewish’ motifs; Jewish children dressed up for Purim festivities, Jewish weddings, mothers lighting Shabbat candles, old synagogues and more.

IIn 1972 he passed away in Paris.