Estera Karp (Carp) (1897 Skierniewice - 1970 Paris), Travelers

oil/paper pasted on cardboard
Dimensions: 30.5 x 38.2 cm
Signed p.d.: 'E. Carp.'
described on the reverse: 'pas a copier', auction stickers

Origin
Leclere auction house, Marseille, December 2018
private collection, Poland

Biography
Estera Karp (known abroad as Esther Carp) was born on December 17, 1897 in Skierniewice, on what is now Mszczonowska Street. She was the daughter of Lipman Karp, a well-known Jewish photographer at the time, and Brucha, née Fersztenberg. Esther was one of seven daughters, most of whom, like her father, became established photographers. The family was artistically gifted, with her father playing the violin and painting. Esther graduated from schools in Skierniewice and went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. The Warsaw-Vienna Railway enabled her to go directly from Skierniewice. After her studies, she settled in Lodz. At that time she illustrated Chaim Kroll's songbook. Bored with everyday life, she emigrated to Paris in 1925. She exhibited at the Salon des Independents, the Autumn Salon and the May Salon. In her work, she was fascinated by cubism and color effects. In her first years in the French capital, she was inspired by the work of Cézanne and Sisley, She frequented the café La Rotonde in the Montparnasse district, where Parisian painters met. Esther Karp never married. Her beloved, with whom she spent many years, left her before the outbreak of World War II. In 1941 she became mentally ill and ended up in a mental institution. Perhaps the loss of her fiancé and several sisters murdered in the Holocaust caused this. She survived. She returned from Paris. She had a studio on the famous Boulevard Saint Germain. She drew a lot, especially with a colored pen. In 1954, she experienced a severe attack of paranoia. She suffered from persecutory mania. She ended up in the Sainte Anne Hospital in Paris, among other places. At the time, she drew the world of people confined as she was in the hospital. Today these drawings are sold at world auctions. Estera Karp from Skierniewice, a colleague of Marc Chagall, died on June 11, 1970. in Paris. She was 73 years old.