Charlotte Salomon: Herring

“My life began when my grandmother decided to take hers, when I found out that my mother's whole family did the same thing [told bij het grandfather c. 1941], when I found out that I am the only one surviving, and when I felt the same inclination deep inside of me, craving for despair and death.”

Charlotte Salomon

Quote in Charlotte's letter, to her father, c. 1941-43; as cited in 'Life in Pictures Charlotte Salomon and her art beyond life tragedies' https://arthive.com/publications/2850~Life_in_Pictures_Charlotte_Salomon_and_her_art_beyond_life_tragedies, on Art-smart
Charlotte wrote her father from South-France, about the events with her grandparents where she stayed. Then she took up her brush with the intention to realize an ambitious plan of creating an autobiographical novel in pictures.

Life , Death , Family , Despair

“.. Thus in the presence of the scorching sun, purple sea, and luxuriant blossoms, the memory of an experience of her fervid early love [Daberlohn = Alfred Wolfsohn ] came back to her. And she tried to visualize that face, that figure. And Io, she succeeded, and she noticed that this was a very interesting occupation. For she discovered that that figure…”

Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte's 6th ending, written page in brush, related to JHM no. 4922v https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004922/part/character/theme/keyword/M004922: (553) 'Life? or Theater..', p. 818
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Love , Memory , Sun , Sea

“…his book, Orpheus, or the Way to a Death Mask, of which he had said that he regretted not having written it as a poem.
And with dream-awakened eyes she saw all the beauty around her, saw the sea, felt the sun, and knew: she had to vanish for a while from the human plane and make every sacrifice in order to create her world anew out of the depths.”

Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte's 2th ending, written page in brush, related to JHM no. 4924v https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4924-02.jpg: 'Life? or Theater..', p. 822
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Death , Books , World , Beauty

“…might possibly preserve her from suicide inasmuch as she remembered one of Amadeus's favorite utterances: Love, know thyself first in order to love thy neighbour. And then: one has to go into oneself - into one's childhood - to be able to go out of oneself. And he felt that the movie was the machine of modern man as a means of going out of oneself. And finally she recalled the famous couple embracing under a bathrobe, functioning as one person.”

Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte's 5th ending, written page in brush, related to no. 4923r https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004923/part/character/theme/keyword/M004923JHM: (554) 'Life? or Theater..', p. 819
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Love , Suicide , Childhood , Personality

“And now something strange happened to our Charlotte. While busy painting, as she always was, she fell asleep in the midday sun. And when she awoke, the finished portrait of her once so ardently beloved Daberlohn [ = Alfred Wolfsohn ] lay before her. However, she tore the sheet into a hundred thousand shreds.... she sought for an explanation... Then her glace fell on one of her old paintings representing Death and the Maiden. And suddenly she knew…”

Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte's 4th ending, written page in brush, related to no. 4923v https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004923/part/character/theme/keyword/M004923JHM: (555) 'Life? or Theater..', p. 820
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Death , Business , Sun , Painting

“.. And with dream awakened eyes she saw all the beauty around her, saw the sea, felt the sun, and knew she had to vanish for a while from the human surface and make every sacrifice in order to create her world anew out of the depths.
And from that came
Life or Theater???”

Charlotte Salomon

original German language, Zitat von Charlotte Salomon: ..und sie sah – mit wachgeträumten Augen all die Schönheit um sich her – sah das Meer spürte die Sonne und wusste: sie musste für eine Zeit von der menschlichen Oberfläche verschwinden und dafür alle Opfer bringen – um sich aus der Tiefe ihre Welt neu zu schaffen
Und dabei entstand<brdas Leben oder das Theater???
Quote, probably 1943, in Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?, (ed.) Judith C. E. Belinfante et al, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1998, ISBN 0-900946-66-0, p. 38; as cited om Wikipedia
these are the concluding words of the last overlay: JHM 4924-02 https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004924/part/character/theme/keyword/M004924, of the epilogue - quoting ideas of her former love in Germany Alfred Wolfsohn, she called him 'Amadeus Daberlohn' in her paintings

Life , World , Beauty , Dreams

“The creation of the following paintings is to be imagined as follows: A person is sitting beside the sea. She is painting. A tune suddenly enters her mind. As she starts to hum it, she notices that the tune exactly matches what she is trying to commit to paper. A texts forms in her head, and she starts to sing the tune, with her own words, over and over again in a loud voice until the painting seems complete. Frequently, several texts take shape, and the result is a duet, or it..”

Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte's 5th introduction page, related to image JHM no. 4155-5 https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004155-e: 'The creation of the following..', p. 45
this quote is written in brush over the whole page of the painting, without any figure
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Imagination , Singing , Painting , Personality

“…two things. First that Daberlohn's eyes seemed to say: 'Death and the Maiden, that is the two of us;' and second, that she still loved him as much as ever. And if he was Death, then everything was alright, then she did not have to kill herself like her ancestors... So she was in fact the living model for his theories, and she remembered…”

Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte's 3th ending, written page in brush, related to JHM no. 4924r https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004924/part/character/theme/keyword/M004924: (556) 'Life? or Theater..', p. 821
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Love , Death

“Franziska (mother of Charlotte): 'In Heaven everything is much more beautiful than here in earth – and when your Mummy has turned into a little angel she'll.... bring a letter, telling her what's like in Heaven..”

Charlotte Salomon

Franziska was of somewhat sentimental disposition.
written text with brush, in her painting JHM no. 4175 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Charlotte_Salomon#/media/File:Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4175.jpg: in 'Life? or Theater..', p. 66
her mother committed suicide when Charlotte was still a young girl - as many in her family did, before or later
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Beauty , Angels