A sad woman in colour

Melancholy and without a smile, Rudolf Levy shows his sister-in-law Margot Lachmann. She is sitting on a green armchair in front of a bright blue wall. To her left is a bookshelf that presumably refers to her own literary activity.

Whether the use of unmixed colors or the love of decorative patterns - the many influences that Levy absorbed in Paris from 1903 around Henri Matisse shaped his entire oeuvre.

Levy loved traveling and lived in Berlin in the golden 20s. After the National Socialists came to power, the Jewish artist left Germany in 1933 and went to Italy, Paris and then Mallorca. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he took a ship from there to New York, but returned to Europe in 1937. He stayed in Florence for a few years. When the city was occupied by the Germans, Levy was no longer safe from discovery and deportation. He was arrested in 1943 and deported to Auschwitz. He presumably died on the transport to the concentration camp.