Original Art Work

Jeffrey Hart Morris

I began portraiture painting in 2022, but paused briefly, because it felt meaningless. I picked up the brush again and began painting ordinary people who lost their lives in tragic world events – and their memories had been lost through the passage of time. My work is embodied in the series called “GALLERY OF INNOCENTS – The Holocaust” and you can see the completed works below.

But they should be remembered for who they were, taken away just when they were living life to the fullest, dreaming of happiness and a better life.

In most cases, I am working from very old, grainy, black and white photo references. Therefore, my ambition is to create an interpretation of my subject’s inner and outer beauty through colour and the purity of light.

I recently spent two months abroad during the Summer of 2023 to study sight-size classical portrait painting at Sarum Studio in Salisbury, UK and the Charles H. Cecil Studio in Florence, Italy. The sight‑size method places the canvas and subject side by side at a distance in order to perceive the whole. Sight-size as a portrait technique was used extensively by John Singer Sargent and his contemporaries, while its origins lie in the practice of Titian, Van Dyck and Velázquez.

I draw inspiration from great artists such as Jacques-Louis David, John Singer Sargent and Philip Alexius de László.

I am presently studying portrait painting with Jason Patrick Jenkins, an accomplished artist and teacher. Jason has an Associate Living Master status with the Art Renewal Center. Jason’s work and his method have been detailed extensively in Fine Art Today and International Artist Magazine.

Richard

My oil portrait of Richard, painted using the sight-size method in Florence, Italy at Charles Cecil Studio in September, 2023. This painting was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the 2023 Canadian Portrait Competition.

GALLERY OF INNOCENTS – The Holocaust

A series of oil portraits painted from black and white photos of the victims before their arrest and deportation to the death camps.

Michel Ejzenberg

Michel Ejzenberg, a French jewish boy, was deported from Paris to Auschwitz on August 26, 1942 in a transport of 1,000 Jews. He did not survive. He was 6.

Nadine Schatz

Oil on Canvas. 24 x 20 This is my oil portrait based on an old black and white photo reference of Nadine Schatz. She was the daughter of immigrant Jewish parents and was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, a city on the outskirts of Paris. In 1942 Nadine and her mother were arrested by French police. Nadine was separated from her mother and deported to the Drancy transit camp east of Paris. Nadine was then deported to Auschwitz on September 23, 1942. She was gassed shortly after arriving.

Walter Degan

Walter, a German locksmith, was registered as a gay prisoner by the Nazis and suffered persecution with over 50,000 others who were imprisoned as “social parasites” – all who were forced to wear a pink triangle denoting their “crime.” According to the current state of knowledge, at least 77 prisoners of Auschwitz were persecuted for their homosexuality, of which at least 43 died.

Citation: facesofauschwitz.com/gallery/walter-degen/

Rosa Farber

A French Jewish girl, Rosa Farber, was born in Paris. On her 10th birthday she was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz. She was murdered in a gas chamber after the selection

Hans Ament

Hans, the son of a successful manufacturer, was four years old when the Germans annexed Austria in World War II. He spent a lot of time playing with his older brother, Alfred, who taught him to ride his bicycle and play with a wind-up train. The family often spent their summers in the country.

On April 6, 1944, when Hans was ten years old, the Nazis raided his home. Most of the children were sent to the Auschwitz death camp on April 15, where they were murdered in the death camps.

Citation: www.museumoftolerance.com