ALTMANN Alexander

1885 (Sobolevka, Kiev province) — 1950 (Nemours, environs of Paris)

Painter

Alexander Altmann was born to a Jewish family in the village near Kiev. At the age of 11 he left his house and later reached Odessa. In order to earn his living he worked as a tailor, shoemaker, metalworker and salesman in grocery, until painter Doroshevich took Altmann into his service. Doroshevich noticed talent of young man and advised him that he should study painting. He did not find the opportunity of study in the Ukraine and at the age of 20 left his homeland for Austria, but left Vienna soon and moved to Paris. And again — casual earnings, he undertook to do any work and worked even at nights. His aim was not only to survive, but to study painting, to follow his vocation. At that time brushes and paints were necessary as much as the air he breathes: in the daytime when museums were open he had been copying paintings of old masters in the Louvre.

In Paris painter lived in poverty. One day when he was in the Rothschild hospital because of faint from hunger, Altmann painted portrait of one patient, poor old man. Unexpectedly guardian of hospital bought that portrait and paid a lot of money to young painter. Altmann spent this money for entering Paris Academy of R. Julian in mid 1900. It was not educational institute in an academic sense, but for a small fee students of Academy could get advices of famous painters, in particular W.–A. Bouguereau and J. M. Bocher, and they could draw from nature.

The Academy did not confer the diplomas. When Altmann decided that he had studied everything that this institute could give, he left academic studios and devoted all his time to his favorite subject — landscape. He painted side streets of Paris, views of its suburbs and small seaside towns, coast of the Atlantic. He began to paint even still lifes. His impressionistic works were decorative and spectacular. There was a freedom in everything: in texture, in dabs of paint, in bright contrasting palette.

The first personal exhibition of Altmann’s painting was held in 1908. Then painter exhibited his works at the Paris salons — Salon des Indépendants (1910–1920), Tuileries (1908) and Salon d’Automne (1908–1924). In 1909 Altmann gave some of his paintings for exposition of the first Salon of Vladimir Izdebsky in Odessa, and then in Kiev. The exhibition included the works of all existing art schools — from the Itinerants to les Fauves and cubists — and had a great success.

The painting of Altmann was not so famous at that time and his works were unremarkable among the painting of Avant-garde at this international exposition. But it was at that time that he got enthusiastic about the idea of his personal exhibition in St. Petersburg. But it was impossible. Because of the law of the Pale of Settlement, Altmann could not return to Russia (and he had never returned), and his works had been unknown in Russia for a long time.

The exhibition of Altmann together with the painters D. O. Widhopff and N. L. Aronson was held in 1912. At this exhibition France government purchased two winter landscapes of Altmann for Luxembourg Palace Museum.

Hard life of Alexander Altmann with a lot of events and profound changes gradually came to normal. His style of painting was composed independently, fairly rapidly and almost had no changes in future. Although Altmann was inspired by style and spirit of Impressionist Painting, he was acquainted with art schools of the end of the 19th — the beginning of the 20th century, he did not imitate masters and had acquired fine reputation of sensitive painter, professional, master of city landscape.

Art historians could not determine exact dates of Altmann’s life. The painter usually did not date his works. There is different information about the year of his birth (1878, 1885) and the year of his death (1922, 1932, 1950) in publications. It happened that in auction catalogues there were two painters: Alexander Altmann (1878–1932) and Alexander Altmann (1885–1950). According to recent research, Alexander Altmann, representative of pre-revolutionary wave of expatriate Russian painters, was born in 1885 and died in 1950.