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Shtetl

Image credit: Ben Uri Collection

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The painting’s title, 'Shtetl', refers to the traditional Jewish village or small town with its tightly-knit community that was common throughout Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. Kowalska conjures up a classic Polish shtetl with archetypal villagers gathering round the water pump at its centre. Nevertheless, a horse-drawn cart winding up a street lined with typical, single-story houses warns of a fast-disappearing way of life as it disappears into a narrowing perspective. Pavements and streetlights signal approaching modernisation and a church in the distance underlines the presence of the wider community. Originally from Poland, Kowalska lived in Berlin and Paris, where she worked among the École de Paris (a loose group of mainly Jewish émigré painters).

Ben Uri Gallery & Museum

London

Title

Shtetl

Date

1934

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 45 x W 60 cm

Accession number

1987-187

Acquisition method

gift from Mosheh Oved

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

1934

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Ben Uri Gallery & Museum

108a Boundary Road, St John's Wood, London, Greater London NW8 0RH England

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