Mommie Schwarzartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanZutphen 1876-1942 Auschwitz (Polen)

Samuel, 'Mommie', Schwarz was husband and artistic kindred spirit of the painter Else Berg. Born the son of a well-to-do industrialist, he went to Antwerp in 1895 to study at the city’s Academy of Art. In 1900 he left for New York, where he stayed for three years, and on the return trip spent time in Madrid. He met Else Berg in Berlin in 1905 and later settled in Amsterdam in 1911. Mommie often did not sign his work, and just before and during the war many of the signatures already on his paintings were removed in order to protect his work from the Germans. He was a talented poster designer and gifted draughtsman, able to render a drawing of great appeal in a few deft strokes. He also designed book covers, posters and covers for the arts journal Wendingen.