Samuel Finkelstein

Samuel Finkelstein (1895-1942) was a Polish-born oil painter identified as an Inter-War Polish Artist who died at a Jewish death camp.

Biography
Born in Sandomierz, Poland, and graduated from a trade school, he became dissatisfied with the trades alone and started to paint. His friends and family suggested he take art classes and in 1913 to 1914, he studied at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts under Wojciech Weiss. After World War I, he settled in Lodz, where he exhibited steadily and became active in the arts of the city.

He became a member of the “Start” Painters Association and the Artists’ Association of the City of Lodz. He also traveled regularly to various art colony areas and the artists’ village of Kazimierz Dolny where he returned many times. He became active in the Krakow art scene by joining the Jednorog Artists Guild. He also participated in the activities of the Jewish community and painted scenes of daily life. He was included in the “The World Evoked” exhibition of Jewish culture organized by the Nowy Sącz District Museum.

Although he was affiliated in his own city with the Constructivist Avant Garde and was friendly with such artists as Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Kataryna Kobro and Karol Hiller, his paintings bore the impressionist traditional style in their motifs, colors and his brush-work. When Finkelstein traveled to Kazimierz Dolny he painted the Jewish life outdoors as he saw it. Chaim Goldberg, an artist born in Kazimierz, recalled the artist as he stood by himself in a field and painted.

Samuel Finkelstein died during the Holocaust at Treblinka, a Nazi extermination camp.

External Sites

 * Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie (Art in Crakow) listing, 1932-34
 * Jewish painters in the art colony of Kazimierz Dolny by Dr. Waldemar Odorowski (Author and Editor), published by Muzeum Nadwislanskie, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland 2008
 * ArtNet gallery sale
 * AskArt listing