Adolf Behrman
Polish painter (1876–1943)
Abraham Adolf Behrman (; also spelled Bermann; July 13, 1876 – August 1943) was a painter of interwar Poland best known for his outdoor paintings of Jewish shtetl life as well as landscapes and group portraits. He spent most of his life in Łódź and was murdered during the liquidation of the Białystok Ghetto in the Holocaust.
Biography
Behrman's place of birth is uncertain. He was born either in the town of Tukkum near Mitawa, or in Riga (sources vary), the son of Róża and Markus Behrman, who arrived in Łódź sometime before the end of the century. Adolf studied art under Jakub Kacenbogen at his private Drawing School in Łódź before the 1900s. He continued his studies in Munich in 1900–1904, first privately, then at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich under Gabriel von Hackl. His paintings inspired the art critic Zygmunt Bomberg-Batowski to write: "Their diverse themes, the depiction – those are always picturesque. This modest artist always thoroughly and lovingly considers any issues brought by a particular theme, in order to best solve the problem of their presentation."
A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Behrman's first commercial success was the selling of a series of paintings and drawings to an arts' collector in Łódź in 1905 which enabled him to travel to Paris. He lived there, studied at the academy and worked for the next five years. From 1924 to 1927, Behrman traveled to Palestine, Egypt and later Morocco.
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