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| name = Robert Guttmann
| name = Robert Guttmann
| image = Robert Guttmann.jpg
| image = Robert Guttmann.jpg
| caption = Robert Guttmann
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1880|4|20}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1880|4|20}}
| birth_place = [[Sušice]], Czech Republic
| birth_place = [[Sušice]], Czech Republic
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== Life ==
== Life ==


[[File:Robert Guttmann.jpg|thumb|upright=3|Robert Guttmann (1930)]] Robert Guttmann attended primary school in [[Planá nad Lužnicí]] and secondary school in [[České Budějovice]], leaving after two years. In 1895 his family moved to Prague, where he attended the two-year Bergmann private business school and then the private art school of the landscape painter Alois Kirnig. From 1893, Guttmann was involved in a forerunner of the [[Maccabi Hatzair]] Jewish youth organization, and in 1897 he set off for the first Zionist congress in Basel. He hiked to Basel on foot, financing the trip by selling hand-painted postcard views and caricatures. This was to remain his main source of income in later years. In 1899 he was a co-founder of a Zionist organization in Prague. He attended most of the Zionist congresses until 1925, where his eccentric appearance set him apart from other delegates.
Robert Guttmann attended primary school in [[Planá nad Lužnicí]] and secondary school in [[České Budějovice]], leaving after two years. In 1895 his family moved to Prague, where he attended the two-year Bergmann private business school and then the private art school of the landscape painter Alois Kirnig. From 1893, Guttmann was involved in a forerunner of the [[Maccabi Hatzair]] Jewish youth organization, and in 1897 he set off for the first Zionist congress in Basel. He hiked to Basel on foot, financing the trip by selling hand-painted postcard views and caricatures. This was to remain his main source of income in later years. In 1899 he was a co-founder of a Zionist organization in Prague. He attended most of the Zionist congresses until 1925, where his eccentric appearance set him apart from other delegates.


Guttmann was a Prague café and street painter. His striking appearance and extensive travels helped to make him famous in his day. “The Professor”, as he was known, sold his art for pocket change. He was widely photographed and caricatured in Czechoslovakia. Yet today he is relatively little known.{{cite web |url=https://english.radio.cz/robert-guttmann-painter-globetrotting-zionist-and-most-caricatured-man-20th-8113769 |title=Robert Guttmann: painter, globetrotting Zionist, and "most caricatured man" of 20th century Prague |date=April 12, 2019 |access-date=January 9, 2022 |website=Radio Prague International}}
Guttmann was a Prague café and street painter. His striking appearance and extensive travels helped to make him famous in his day. “The Professor”, as he was known, sold his art for pocket change. He was widely photographed and caricatured in Czechoslovakia. Yet today he is relatively little known.{{cite web |url=https://english.radio.cz/robert-guttmann-painter-globetrotting-zionist-and-most-caricatured-man-20th-8113769 |title=Robert Guttmann: painter, globetrotting Zionist, and "most caricatured man" of 20th century Prague |date=April 12, 2019 |access-date=January 9, 2022 |website=Radio Prague International}}

Revision as of 16:04, 23 January 2022

Robert Guttmann
Born(1880-04-20)20 April 1880
Sušice, Czech Republic
Died14 March 1942(1942-03-14) (aged 61)
Łódź, Poland
NationalityCzech
Known forPainting, Zionism

Robert Guttmann (born 20 April 1880 in Sušice, Southern Bohemia; died 14 March 1942 in the Łódź Ghetto), was a Czech painter.

Life

Robert Guttmann attended primary school in Planá nad Lužnicí and secondary school in České Budějovice, leaving after two years. In 1895 his family moved to Prague, where he attended the two-year Bergmann private business school and then the private art school of the landscape painter Alois Kirnig. From 1893, Guttmann was involved in a forerunner of the Maccabi Hatzair Jewish youth organization, and in 1897 he set off for the first Zionist congress in Basel. He hiked to Basel on foot, financing the trip by selling hand-painted postcard views and caricatures. This was to remain his main source of income in later years. In 1899 he was a co-founder of a Zionist organization in Prague. He attended most of the Zionist congresses until 1925, where his eccentric appearance set him apart from other delegates.

Guttmann was a Prague café and street painter. His striking appearance and extensive travels helped to make him famous in his day. “The Professor”, as he was known, sold his art for pocket change. He was widely photographed and caricatured in Czechoslovakia. Yet today he is relatively little known."Robert Guttmann: painter, globetrotting Zionist, and "most caricatured man" of 20th century Prague". Radio Prague International. 12 April 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2022.

He wandered through Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine visiting Jewish communities in those areas. In the year of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, he held an exhibition of 40 paintings in Prague's Karlsplatz square.

After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in early 1939, Guttmann was persecuted as a Jew. On October 16, 1941, he was deported on the first transport of Jews from Prague to the Łódź Ghetto, where he died of the harsh conditions.

Coal market in Prague with Self-Portrait (1941)

Guttmann's painting style does not fit into classical art methods: it can perhaps be viewed as an original form of primitivism. During his lifetime, he was known more as a Prague character than as an artist. Some of his pictures from 1939 to 1941 and appear in collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague, one of whose branches opened in 2001 as the Robert Guttmann Gallery with an exhibition of his pictures.

Chanukka mit Theodor Herzl (1941)

Bibligraphy

"Guttmann, Robert". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.