Description: Very rare Ephraim Seidenbeutel Holocaust painting. He was a twin and he would paint the same painting with his brother. Signed by Ephraim at the top.

Condition: As you can see the painting is ripped and needs repairing, parts of painting missing at edges. The canvas is half off of the original slats. Measurements are approximately 31 x 19 inches.

Background:: The Seidenbeutel brothers were Polish Jewish artists who were twins. Efraim Seidenbeutel and Menasze Seidenbeutel were born on December 7, 1907. They were killed in 1945, at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. They had two brothers who were also artists: Józef, the oldest, was a painter and Hirsz, the youngest, was a sculptor. The Seidenbeutels are considered "Interwar Artists" and painted in the Post-expressionism of École de Paris. They painted mostly landscapes and still life scenes. The twins had a unique way of working; one brother would start a painting and the other brother would finish it. They would sign the painting with just their surname. Even the works the twins created separately have an almost identical style.
The Seidenbeutels were born in Warsaw. Their father, Abraham, was a textile trader, and their mother took care of the eight children. Efraim's and Menasze's six siblings included Józef, the oldest, who was also a painter and Hirsz, who was younger and was a sculptor.

Education: The Seidenbeutels signed up for painting studies in 1921, at the Municipal School of Decorative Arts. In 1922, their sculpture titled “The Portrait of Anski” was shown at the 4th Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures organized by the Jewish community. Thereafter, they became students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where they belonged to the elitist group "Four" set up by the Rector Tadeusz Pruszkowski. Monika Żeromska remembers that the twins enrolled in school as one student, paid one fee, and took turns attending classes. This painting was officially showcased at The Warsaw Jewish Art Exhibition as stated on the label on the back of this painting The Seidenbeutels had their own studio at the Jewish dorm on Sierakowskiego Street in the Warsaw district of Praga. Frequently, they would go on field trips to small villages and paint en plein air. One of the towns they visited frequently was Kazimierz Dolny. During the late 1920s and early 1930s they would arrive for a 'season' carrying over 24 stretched canvases each, and complete them in 30–60 days. These canvases would be exhibited in Warsaw and Krakow, and would sell out. They met with other artists and inspired younger ones, such as Chaim Goldberg. They met Goldberg when he was eleven years-old and bought his en plein air gouache; it was Goldberg's first sale.

The Holocaust Years: During World War II and the Nazi occupation, the Seidenbeutels were confined within the ghetto in Białystok where they worked at the House of Art in the army. They may have belonged to a group of painters, set up by Oskar Steffens, who copied reproductions of paintings by old masters. The twins were later sent to the Stutthof concentration camp, from which they were marched to the death camp in Flossenbürg. They were executed by the camp’s guards one day before the camp was liberated. Izaak Celnikier, also a painter, was a witness to their deaths.

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