Objects

Mayer Kirshenblatt created the first work depicting the kitchen of his family house in Opatów in 1909. It was the first drawing to illustrate his reminiscences: a sketch in pencil, produced after the family had convinced him to start bringing his stories to life in pictures. As his daughter Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett points out (see “The Shtetl as Memory Palace”, in the catalogue: (post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt, Warsaw 2024), the kitchen scenes were her favourite among all the themes tackled by her father in his works, and the kitchen was the first room he drew for her. He later created a watercolour painting, followed by a piece in acrylic paint on canvas.

The drawing shows the Kirshenblatt family flat in Opatów after they moved to Kościelna Street, when little Mayer was just four years old. As the author recalls, their kitchen was quite spacious for the standards of the era. It was the central point of the house, and at the same time is served as the boy’s bedroom. This was where the family cooked, ate, did the dishes, but also where the children played and learnt and where social life flourished (for example, the mother would meet with her friends there and gossip, as depicted by the artist in another painting). The open kitchen window allowed a view of the courtyard. ‘The corner chair was most desirable, because one could sit and observe the comings and goings in the courtyard’, the artist reminisced (M. Kirshenblatt, B. Kirszenblatt-Gimblett, They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust, Berkeley 2007).

Małgorzata Bogdańska-Krzyżanek