For a basic introduction to the work of Charlotte Salomon see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Salomon; for further study and thorough discussions see eg. Reading Charlotte Salomon .

I thought I had already read this book after I saw the exhibit at the Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco on August 30, 2011. (https://www.thecjm.org/exhibitions/35) I hadn’t added it to Goodreads though and I was already a member. Perhaps I was able to read only portions of the book at the time, so I reread/reskimmed it so that I could rate and review it now. (I just noticed I shelved it as to read on 8/30/11. I think that I read much of the book while at the exhibit. There were copies available. We spent hours there but most of that time was looking at the art and the captions at the pieces and I am now assuming I wouldn’t have had time to read the entire book.

For me, this is a full 5 stars worthy book. I’d remembered mostly the art and Charlotte’s story but the text play is just as compelling and wonderful as the art. I love this book! I admire how Charlotte was able to take pain and turn it into art.

I love this artist’s art. I am interested in her story. I was happy to revisit both. It’s a really heavy book so I was able to read it only when home. I was not willing to carry it around with me. It’s a paperback but heavier than most hardcover books. The quality of the art as shown on the book’s pages is excellent. The art content and their captions tell a fascinating and complete story. The art alone does a lot. There are also sections at the start of the book that are also fascinating and educational. They’re are text heavy but include some lovely and helpful and interesting photos and also some of Charlotte’s art.

From the inside front cover of the book that precedes the Contents page: “The work that Charlotte Salomon entitled Life? Or Theater? figures among the 1,325 gouaches and transparencies owned by the Jewish Historical Museum. This publication includes reproductions of 769 gouaches, thirteen printed pages of text and one transparency. Only the unnumbered programme booklet (JHM no. 4155) and three unnumbered gouaches have been added. At Gary Schwartz’s recommendation the sequence of gouaches JHM no. 4404 has been switched in contrast to the previous edition. The numbering of these gouaches conflicts with the story’s continuity. All texts accompanying the gouaches are by Charlotte Salomon.”

Everything about this book is 5 star worthy. The art, Charlotte’s writing, the biography written about her and her time, which spanned from 1917 WWI to the middle of WWII 1943. It’s just as chilling as it’s ever been to read about what happened in the years 1933-1943, in this case how it affected Charlotte and her family and those she knew.

She was German Jewish but was living in France when she was captured by the Nazis. As far as her biography, what most impressed me was how suicide and depression were rampant in her family members (including her closest women relatives!) and ancestors, and she suffered from depression and contemplated suicide and she was obsessed with the family suicides, but she chose life. When she was sent to Auschwitz at 26 she was 5 months pregnant. She was gassed upon arrival. If she’d not been pregnant (choosing more life) she might have survived. She chose life and then was murdered. It’s so sad. Tragic. Her father & stepmother did survive and it was them being given her art/play/writings/ work that reminded me of Otto Frank being given Anne Frank’s diary.

Her play autobiographical play (personal and family and what was going on in Nazi occupied Germany/socially/historically) takes place from 1913-1940 and is supposed to be set to music. I’d love to hear the music. Some of the music in the directions is known to me and I could hear some of it in my head as I read.

When I decided to read/reread this book I had planned to make a list of my very favorite art pieces in the book but I just couldn’t do that. Yes, I love some more than other, want to view some longer than others, but I’d adored too many to list, maybe about half of them. I will say that overall I liked the art earlier in the play more than the art later in the play. I was a tad frustrated that I couldn’t read the German words included in some of the art. I was able to translate some of the words, though not nearly enough to understand what she was trying to convey with her words.

She was already an accomplished artist before she wrote this long piece. I am interested in seeing all of her art and maybe in reading an in depth biography of her, her family, her contemporaries, and their places in history. ( )

These paintings were done in France after 1940 where she moved. They relive her younger years in Berlin and were completed shortly before she was deported to Auschwitz where she died ca. 1943.

The introductory material and information is somewhat incorrect. Charlotte's work is a unique and classical contribution to late German Expressionism. Anyone interested in the Holocaust and pre-WWII Germany should own this book. ( )

I went to a talk about Charlotte Salomon last year, and put a
brief comment on my blog, including a link to the online collection at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. ( )