Bidspirit auction | Wilhelm Wachtel (Polish, 1875-1942) -

Wilhelm Wachtel (Polish, 1875-1942) - Figures in the Forest, Oil on Cardboard, Paris, 1910. - Wilhelm Wachtel (Polish, 1875-1942) - Figures in the Forest, Oil on Cardboard, Paris, 1910. Signed and dated. 23.5x31cm. Wilhelm Wachtel was a Jewish-Polish painter, graphic artist, illustrator, representative of realism. He was born and lived in Lviv. He studied at the Krakow School of Fine Arts under Leon Wyczolkowski and Leopold Loffler , and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Nikolaus Gysis. He traveled frequently to Vienna, Paris and Palestine , where he settled in 1936. After the outbreak of World War II, he emigrated to the United States. He painted in oils, drew with pastels, was involved in graphics (a portfolio of lithographs entitled Farewell to Golus), created mainly genre scenes with Jewish themes, including after returning from a trip to Palestine in 1922, he made a series of paintings depicting the difficult life of Jewish settlers (Halutz), created lyrical portraits, compositions with biblical themes, and illustrated books. He exhibited extensively, for example, in the Municipal Art Gallery in Lodz in 1926 he showed a portrait titled Judyta, and in 1935 he had a solo exhibition at the Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw, where he showed nearly 50 works. Most of his works were lost during World War II. He died tragically in a car accident in the United States.