Forgotten Esthera Karp - a painter from Skierniewice 

 

Estera’s paintings and drawings are sold nowadays ­on many auctions in Europe as well as on the whole world. The things reach sometimes extremely high prices….. I wonder if somebody in Skierniewice still memembers her.

As some people claim, she was born in the family of Skierniewice musicians and she was one of the seven Karp’s daughters. This information should be corrected as to the fact that she was a daughter of a photographer from Skierniewice.

The fact ,that her father used to play the violin and that he was gifted to painting may be the only interesting supplement to his basic job, that is photography.

Estera,having completed her secondary school in Skierniewice, took studies on the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna. She studied painting. She used to take a train from Skierniewice to Vienna, so she was able to visit her family a couple times a year. She completed her studies on the beginning of the 20thies and after that she settled in Lodz.

From that period of time come her illustrations to the Chaim Kroll’s song-book, edited in 1921. In 1925 she moved to Paris ,where she could freely develop her talent. And she was extremely talented…. She did paintings,sketches,drawings and later she was famous for her coloured drawings made with the help of coloured ball-pens.

Her works,dated right after her studies in Vienna, could be seen in many Paris parlours, among them in so-called: May Salon ,Autumn Salon and Independent Salon. Years have passed, Estera Karp did not leave Paris and her works were more frequently spotted by the merchants. She became well known in Paris as Esther Carp and so she started putting such a name on her paintings and drawings/E.Carp/.

In 1931,a Polish merchand of Jewish origin, Leopld Zborowski organized a special exhibition devoted to Esther Carp. According to Polish Scientific Service, Leopold Zborowski was a protector of Jewish painters – immigrants, described by another historian of fine arts as “Ecole de Paris”. He attended regularly La Rotunde Café’ in Montparnasse District where famous Paris painters would meet every day. He gave assistance for sych well-known painters as: Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne.

A few months later, after the exhibition organized by Leopold Zborowski came to an end,Estera Karp left Paris headed for Poland.It is not well known if she settled in Skierniewice,Lodz or Warsaw.That was time when her father died on the 27th of March,1924 and her sisters used to work in photo shops.

Estera was not alone although she was never married. Her lover, with whom she spent many years left her suddenly and went for good to the Great Britain.That was just before the 2nd WW.

In 1941 she got a mental illness and found herself in one of the psychiatric clinics. That probably saved her life otherwise she would have died in ghetto or in a concentration camp. May be that was her personal decision, because she knew that this was the only possibility to save her life. We do not know. From the other hand her mental illness could be caused by the knowledge that all her sisters perished in holocaust and her only man left her alone.

However she survived the 2nd WW. Then she returned to Paris to her new atelier by Saint Germain Boulevard. She painted and made drawings. As to the latter, they were mostly made by the coloured ball pens. Unfortunately, her illness/paranoia/ was attacking harder and harder. In June 1964 she was taken to St. Moritz and then to St. Anne hospital in Paris, where she lived until her death on the 11th of June,1970.

During her last years spent in the hospital, she made drawings using coloured ball pens and they were sold on auctions in Europe. When she died, it turned out that there were a lot of drawings in her room which she had never shown to anyone . The drawings often depicted the closed world of people,like her, in the hospital.

Estera Karp was Rojza Karp’s sister about whom I had written earlier in the article “Following The Lady From Skierniewice”. So that my searching Lipman Karp’s family reveals another mystery of a photographer from Skierniewice. I wonder, how many mysteries I will disclose before I find another Lipman Karp’s descendents.

Returning to Estera , a few months ago, a well known Polish Sales House sold one of Estera’s paintings. Unfortunately, we do not know who bought the stuff and where it is now. Frankly speaking, Estera Karp was forgotten in Poland and only non-Polish residents buy her works. There is still slight possibility that somebody in Skierniewice possesses her paintings or drawings as a heritage from their parents or grandparents, where in lower right or left corner there is a signature: E.Carp. It may be a painting, a sketch or a water colour. If so, it would have been turned out, that he or she had ­had a precious treasure of which they hadn’t realized before .

Estera Karp’s paintings often depict the world of tiny society in everyday circumstances. One can see the world of past balls and meetings, for many of them there is only a remembrance of their past. So is as to Estera Karp, a forgotten painter from Skierniewice.

Waldemar Bronicz

Esther Carp : an orchestra
Esther Carp : a married couple
Esther Carp : three sitting women ­