Objects

The watercolour is a development of the initial sketch of the set design (see MPOLIN-M1151) for the play Yakenhuz. Ojlem habo, Mensh [Wieczór Szołem Alejchemowski; Sholem Aleichem Evening], directed by Ida Kamińska, which premiered on 4 March 1950, at the headquarters of the State Jewish Theatre in Łódź. Approved by the director of the play, Bolesław (Beniamin) Pacanowski developed the preparatory study into an artistic view of the kitchen, which is at the same time a dining room, a washroom, a place to do homework and to sleep. To the left of the stage is the entrance to the alcove, separated from the chamber by red, suspended curtains. On the table top stands a beautiful samovar, and to the right of it – an ornamental bowl (sugar bowl?), a plate and glasses on a tray. On the school bench we can see an inkwell with a pen, a spread-out notebook, and a blotter. The kitchen is decorated with a large, bourgeois sideboard.

One of the parts [of the Evening of Sholem Aleichem] - Jokenhoz oder Dos grojse berzenszpil [Yokenhoz oder Dos groyse berzenshpil] from 1894, was the first play by the budding writer. Sholem Aleichem, who wrote in Yiddish, was born in 1859, in Perejeslav in Ukraine, and died in 1916, in New York. He wrote his first works in Hebrew; when he decided to write in Jewish, he took the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, which was a greeting to Jews and meant "Peace among you" in Yiddish (for more about Sholem Aleichem, see https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/biogramy/3926-szolem-alejchem).

Renata Piątkowska