us-005578-irn60875-irn61218
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Figure studies in ink on paper of 10 figures with no faces and dark, shaded clothes. Seven of them appear to be versions of the same figure, a man in cap and black suit, bent over, one foot forward, with a shovel type implement, preparing to dig in the ground. In the bottom center is a group of 3 indistinct figures. There are dates and a Hebrew inscription at the bottom. front, bottom right, pencil : Ester Lurie, Ghetto Kovno, Tel Aviv 1941/1957 / Exercises in sketching"Raiding a potato fiel" bottom right, pencil : Hebrew text [Ester Lurie / Ghetto Kovno 1941/1957 / Exercises in sketching"Raiding a potato fiel"]
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1957-01-01
has beginning date: 1941-01-01
has end date: 1957-12-31
has end date: 1941-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: heb
has record set type: Item
history: The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995 by Esther Lurie.
history: Esther Lurie (1913-1998) was born in Liepaja (formerly Libau), Latvia, to a religious, intellectual Jewish family. Her parents were Josef and Bluma and she had five older sisters and an older brother. The family was forced to move to Riga during World War I (1914-1918), when Liepāja, a Baltic seaport which was then part of the Russian Empire, was taken over as a military port. Esther’s artistic gifts were nurtured from an early age. From 1931 -1934, she studied theatrical set design at the Instituts des Arts Decoratifs in Brussels, Belgium; in early 1934, she went to Antwerp, Belgium, to study drawing and painting at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. Most of her family emigrated to Palestine in 1934 and Esther joined them there. She worked with the Hebrew Theater, producing set decorations, and by 1938, had her first one women art show, winning the Dizengoff Prize. In 1939, Esther went on a study-exhibition tour throughout Europe. She was visiting her sister, Muta, in Kovno (Kaunus), Lithuania, when World War II broke out and she was trapped in the area. In 1940, the Soviet Army invaded and occupied Lithuania and the persecution of Jews became widespread. In June-July 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and soon occupied Lithuania. Almost immediately, German Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing units) and their Lithuanian auxiliaries began systematic massacres of Jews throughout the country. By November 1941, the surviving Jews of Kovno were imprisoned in a sealed ghetto surrounded by barbed wire. It was extreme overcrowded and there weresevere food shortages and frequent outbreaks of disease. Esther immediately began to record her experiences with sketches and written testimony on whatever little scraps of paper she could find. This was not easy and it could be dangerous – they were always under observation from guards. But other ghetto residents who saw her drawings thought it was important that someone should show ‘how it was’ and make a permanent record of their …
identifier: irn61218
is or was included in: us-005578-irn60875
record resource extent: overall: Height: 7.000 inches (17.78 cm) | Width: 8.375 inches (21.273 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Study sketches of ten figures for the drawing, Raiding a Potato Field, done by Esther Lurie based upon her experiences in Kovno Ghetto. This drawing is a 1957 recreation of a scene she saw and drew in 1946. The original drawing was hidden in Kovno but lost in the destruction of the ghetto. It had been photographed in the ghetto with a Leica camera by the lawyer Avraham Tory. Esther recreated the drawing in its original 25x35 cm. size in 1957 for the album A Living Testimony. Esther, originally from Liepaja, Latvia, settled in Palestine in 1934. She was visiting her sister in Kovno (Kaunas, Lithuania] in summer 1941, when it was occupied by Nazi Germany. She was confined to the ghetto and had to create portraits and paintings for the Germans. She also, at the request of the Jewish Council, dedicated herself to recording the daily life of the residents. In July 1944, the ghetto was liquidated. Esther was sent to Stutthof concentration camp, where she continued to draw. Her family members were sent to Auschwitz and murdered. In August 1944, Esther was deported to Leibisch, and liberated by the Soviet Army on January 21, 1945. During the journey back to Palestine, she lived in a displaced persons camp in Italy, where her drawings of Leibisch were exhibited.
title: Ten preparatory figure sketches by Esther Lurie