Zygmunt Landau (1898 - 1962) - Polish Painter Landscape Of Provence Oil/canvas Signed 54x73 Cm

Zygmunt LANDAU (Łódź 1898 - Tel-Aviv 1962)
Landscape in Provence
Circa 1935
Oil on canvas signed lower left
54x 73 cm

Zygmunt Landau, born in Łódź in 1898 and died in Tel Aviv in June 1962, was a painter of the École de Paris from a Jewish family in Poland. The great-grandson and son of rabbis from Stryków, Zygmunt Landau studied with Henri Epstein at Jakub Kacenbogen's drawing school in Łódź, then entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Stanislas Lentz's studio. At the age of 18, he gave painting lessons. He arrives in Paris in 1920, settles at La Ruche near Soutine, Krémègne and Kikoine, frequented the Grande Chaumière and the Académie Colarossi, all the while maintaining links with Poland, where he returned for exhibitions in Łódź and Warsaw. Taking shelter in Saint-Tropez during the Occupation, he adopted Provence: the light of Provence exerted a profound influence on his very special sense of color. The world of his painting reflects calm and serenity: motionless figures in dreamy poses ,maternities, women at fountains, grape-pickers, gleaners, shepherds, nudes, sleeping couples, scenes of patriarchal life, still lifes. This great sobriety is underpinned by a graphic style that focuses above all on lines of force and balance of mass, underlining their fragility. The influence of Cézanne and Modigliani is clearly perceptible. At the end of the 1950s, he left for Israel, where he continued to paint. His last work was the stained-glass window in the YMCA chapel in Tiberias.