Stephanie G. Mathis Charlotte Salomon was a young German Jew who created 784 paintings between 1940 and 1942 while hiding from Nazi authorities. She named the series Leben. She gave the sequence a single title: Leben? (Life? (Life? Salomon’s artwork can be viewed as a precursor of the modern graphic novel. It creates a complex narrative through words and pictures.
Together, these sequential images tell a family history, focussing on a central character called Charlotte Kann, a semi-autobiographical version of Salomon herself. Charlotte’s growth as an artist is documented, along with her struggle against madness, and her first romantic relationship, against the backdrop of Nazi violence. A new exhibition of Salomon’s work is opening at the Jewish Museum, London. Audiences have a unique opportunity to see this extraordinary masterpiece.
Words and Images
The early paintings are often divided into panels and grids, with a structure that is reminiscent of comics. The split images are dotted with tiny figures that cut scenes and structure the narrative flow.
What is the essence of Life? Or Theatre? Is it better to self-destruct or not? We are introduced to Charlotte’s parents, Albert & Franziska, in the early scenes through glimpses of their marriage night, the joyous announcement of Charlotte’s birth, and Franziska’s rapid descent into despair.
Despite medical intervention, Franziska ends her Life. Charlotte is initially kept in the dark about the circumstances surrounding Franziska’s death. She later learns that her family has a history of mental illness. Charlotte, who witnessed her grandmother’s death by suicide, sits in front of an open window, surrounded by a scene full of vibrant colors, and begs God to keep her from going mad.
The home of the Kann family. Collection Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam/ (c), Charlotte Salomon Foundation/Charlotte Salomon
Life is not only about the use of images in narratives. Life? Modern comics. Salomon applied semi-transparent overlays with writing to more than 200 paintings. The pieces combine text and images to create a graphic report that tells the intertwined stories of many people.
The Jewish Museum has recreated these painted words on gallery walls with great effect, even though the overlays are too fragile for display.
The spaces between
As in modern comics, the space between the images is also important. Three of the paintings depicting Franziska’s death are a good example.
The first painting is a series of images that are arranged on one page. They show Franziska’s deep depression and the growing concern from her family.
She is permitted to have her husband and Charlotte visit her from time to time. The hope (and the belief) is that she will be considerably better. Collection Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam/ (c. Charlotte Salomon Foundation/Charlotte Salomon r)
Franziska will then be kept under the “strict observation of a nursing staff.” The nurse leaves the room after a fatal “… moment, which Franziska uses to jump out of the window. In the space between dashes, she commits suicide. She exits out the window using the energy between the sentences, which the painter represents as a short lapse in attention.
Franziska says: “I can’t bear it anymore, I am always alone.” Collection Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam/(c) Charlotte Salomon Foundation/Charlotte Salomon
This second painting plays a crucial role in the exhibition. This shows how we connect images and captions, but also how we project meaning in the gaps between the pictures. We can see Franziska open the window because this image is divided up into several panels. Her feet are visible in the lower-left corner of the picture.
The third picture in the sequence shows a full-page spread of Franziska, with a pool of red scarlet seeping out from under her crumpled-up arms. This suggests that she has suffered fatal injuries.
What happens in the gaps between scenes? We can imagine Franziska jumping off the edge, crashing into the pavement, and then crashing back down. Scott McCloud, cartoonist and comics theorist, explains Understanding Comics that we read between the lines of graphic narratives. We connect images to create a sequence.
The apartment was on the third level. The tragedy is over. Collection Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam/ (c), Charlotte Salomon Foundation/Charlotte Salomon
The Jewish Museum’s exhibit makes it clear that Life is not just a word. Life? It’s not all about death and desolation. These paintings tell a story of hope and creative expression in dark times. Charlotte must decide whether to follow her grandmother and mother over the window sill or “create her own world” as a radical act. She chooses to live despite the possibility of her destruction.
Salomon died in Auschwitz at the age of 26. Her history was almost erased. Salomon gave the paintings to her friend shortly before she died and asked that they keep them hidden from the authorities. Now Life? Now Life? Salomon’s work is part of a wider revival of Academic and Public Interest, which has secured her place in the history of 20th-century art.
Charlotte’s older lover says, “you know, child, some pictures are quite good.”” He speculates that the next “one day, people will look at us both.”” It is a perfectly accurate prediction. Salomon’s paintings are remarkable because they create a visual story that anticipates the graphic novels of today.
