Rahel Szalit-Marcus (Lithuanian, 1888-1942) - Fischke der Krumme, Portfolio with 14 Lithographs.

14 ...

Rahel Szalit-Marcus (Lithuanian, 1888-1942) - Fischke der Krumme, Portfolio with 14 Lithographs.

14 lithographs (out of 16) are illustrations for the book - Fischke der Krumme by Mendele Mocher Sefarim.

Limited edition, numbered 62/100.

Published by Propylaen Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1922.

Each lithograph is hand (pencil) signed.

Original folder.

53x35cm.

Stains, wear and tear to folder.

Rahel Szalit-Marcus was a Jewish artist and illustrator. Born Rahel Markus in Telz in the Kovno region of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, she was active in Berlin during the Weimar Republic and in Paris in the 1930s. She was best known for her illustrations of East European Jewish subjects. 

Her work appeared in several exhibitions of the Berliner Secession, a German art movement that was established at the turn of the century. Szalit was acquainted with Jewish Expressionist artists Ludwig Meidner and Jakob Steinhardt, and she had the support of art historians Karl Schwarz and Rachel Wischnitzer, among others.  Szalit spent time at well-known cafקs frequented by artists and emigres. She built connections to such intellectuals as Polish-German writer Eleonore Kalkowska. Szalits lithographic images were at times compared to the work of Kathe Kollwitz.

As an active member of the Association of Women Artists in Berlin beginning in 1927, Szalit was able to exhibit her paintings and other work alongside such renowned artists as Kathe Kollwitz, Lotte Laserstein, Julie Wolfthorn, Kathe Munzer-Neumann, Grete Csaki-Copony, and Else Haensgen-Dingkuhn. She became better known internationally with a prizewinning painting in the 1929 exhibition Die Frau von heute.

Szalit fled to France after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. She lived in Montparnasse, where she was affiliated with the School of Paris. In June 1935, she gave a solo exhibition at the Galerie Zborowski (founded by Leopold Zborowski), and remained active in Paris through 1939.

In July 1942, Szalit-Marcus was arrested in the Vel dHiv Roundup, and she was deported to Auschwitz in August 1942. Her Paris studio was plundered, and many of her original works were destroyed or lost.  Rahel Szalit-Marcus perished at Auschwitz in August 1942.