Charlotte Salomon was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin.
23 Facts About Charlotte Salomon
2.
Charlotte Salomon's father, Albert Salomon was a surgeon; her mother, Franziska, sensitive and troubled, committed suicide when Charlotte was eight or nine, though she was led to believe her mother died from influenza.
3.
Charlotte Salomon was sixteen when the Nazis came to power in 1933.
4.
Charlotte Salomon simply refused to go to school, and stayed at home.
5.
Charlotte Salomon studied painting there for two years, but by summer 1938 the antisemitic policy of Hitler's Third Reich meant that it was too dangerous for her to continue attending the college and she did not return, despite winning a prize.
6.
Charlotte Salomon's father was briefly interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in November 1938, after Kristallnacht, and the Charlotte Salomon family decided to leave Germany.
7.
Charlotte Salomon was sent to the South of France to live with her grandparents, already settled in Villefranche-sur-Mer near Nice.
8.
Charlotte Salomon left L'Ermitage with her grandparents to live in an apartment in Nice, where her grandmother attempted to hang herself in the bathroom.
9.
Shortly after the outbreak of war in September 1939, Charlotte Salomon's grandmother succeeded in taking her own life.
10.
Charlotte Salomon's grandmother had stockpiled Veronal and morphine for when the German army arrived, but when she was denied access to her medication, she instead tried and failed to hang herself before eventually succeeding by throwing herself out of a window.
11.
Charlotte Salomon's grandfather returned to his life in Nice, while in Villefranche, Salomon experienced a nervous breakdown that stemmed from her grandfather's revelations and her disgust for him.
12.
Charlotte Salomon rented a room in the pension La Belle Aurore in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and there she commenced the work that would outlive her.
13.
Charlotte Salomon edited the paintings, re-arranged them, and added texts, captions, and overlays.
14.
Charlotte Salomon had a habit of humming songs to herself while painting.
15.
The event is detailed in a 35-page illustrated confessional letter Charlotte Salomon addressed to her former lover Alfred Wolfsohn, who never received the letter.
16.
Charlotte Salomon was transported to Auschwitz on 7 October 1943 and was probably murdered in the gas chamber on the same day that she arrived there, October 10.
17.
In 1943, when she was 26, Charlotte Salomon gave her collection of paintings to Dr Moridis, a trusted friend who had counseled her through her depression.
18.
The center image is the final example of the transparent overlays that occur throughout the work, while the rightmost image is the gouache most closely associated with the work, depicting Charlotte Salomon kneeling before the sea with brush and paper in her hand and the words Life or Theater inscribed on her back.
19.
The work is still relatively little known, in part because Salomon's work doesn't appear on the international art market, as the whole archive belongs to the protective Charlotte Salomon Foundation based at the Joods Historisch Museum.
20.
In remembrance of the artist, French composer Marc-Andre Dalbavie dedicated an opera to her: Charlotte Salomon, commissioned by the Salzburg Festival.
21.
The main role of Charlotte Salomon is performed by two artists, an actress and a singer.
22.
Charlotte Salomon: A Tri-Coloured Play with Music was developed with the assistance of Canadian Stage Company, and the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.
23.
The role of Charlotte Salomon was played by Canadian soprano Adanya Dunn.