Charcoal on paper, signed and dated “J Ch 56”.
Dimensions in frame: 40x33 cm (30x24 cm)
Józef Charyton (Krupice 1909 – 1975 Białystok) – Polish painter and social activist. He was a self-taught painter, although he studied for a time at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1938, he designed the decorations for the crypt at the parish church in Wołczyn, where the remains of King Stanisław August Poniatowski were laid to rest. This event, as well as Charyton’s subsequent efforts to restore the king’s good name, were described by Marian Brandys in his historical essay titled “Guardian of the Royal Tomb.” During World War II, he witnessed the Holocaust of the Jews in the ghetto in Wysokie Litewskie. After the war, he created a series of paintings and drawings documenting scenes of the Holocaust as well as the daily life of the Jewish community in the Polish countryside before World War II.
