Objects

Entlausung – odwszenie (Entlausung – delousing) (march)

Siemaszko, Olga (1911-2000)

This illustration in the book "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Deceased) opens (precedes) the short story "Entlausung – Odwszenie" (Entlausung – Delousing) by Maria Zarębińska-Broniewska. It shows the march of Auschwitz prisoners to the bathhouse, where they are to be deloused; along the way they do not know where and for what purpose they are being directed, they expect death.

The bright circle in the upper part (a lamp?) is the visual leitmotif of the volume, functioning in other illustrations as the sun visible from behind the smoke from the crematorium (as in the unpublished versions of the illustrations, also in the collection) or shown in inverted colours (as in the illustration for the story "Gołębie" (Pigeons), see MPOLIN-M1909, or on the wrapper). As in the case of other colourful illustrations preceding individual stories, the almost monochromatic painting layer is limited to brown, black, white and shades of gray. Deep parts of the shadows were highlighted with ink, which refracts light differently than paints and additionally emphasises selected fragments.

The outer edges of the painted frame of the illustration are uneven. This is due to the illustrator not having the need to ensure the closure of the outer elements of the composition, as the publisher's graphic designers were to handle its artistic processing.


Przemysław Kaniecki

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Information about the object
Author / creator
Siemaszko, Olga (1911-2000)
Object type
painting
Time of creation / dating
20th century
Place of creation
Warszawa (mazovian province)
Technique
painter’s
drawn
painter’s
Material
canvas
aquarel paint
ink
Keywords
Copyright status
contact the Museum
Owner
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Identification number
MPOLIN-M1612
Localization
The object is not currently on display
The purchase of work for the POLIN Museum's collection was subsidized by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for Promotion of Culture - a state purpose fund, program: National Collection of Contemporary Art.