Seidenbeutel brothers

Background

The Seidenbeutels are considered "Interwar Artists" and painted in the Post-expressionism of École de Paris. They painted mostly landscapes and still life scenes. The twins had a unique way of working; one brother would start a painting and the other brother would finish it. They would sign the painting with just their surname. Even the works the twins created separately have an almost identical style.

Biography of the twins

The Seidenbeutels were born in Warsaw. Their father, Abraham, was a textile trader, and their mother took care of the eight children. Efraim's and Menasze's six siblings included Józef, the oldest, who was also a painter and Hirsz, who was younger and was a sculptor.

Education

The Seidenbeutels signed up for painting studies in 1921, at the Municipal School of Decorative Arts. In 1922, their sculpture titled “The Portrait of Anski” was shown at the 4th Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures organized by the Jewish community. Thereafter, they became students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where they belonged to the elitist group "Four" set up by the Rector Tadeusz Pruszkowski. Monika Żeromska remembers that the twins enrolled in school as one student, payed one fee, and took turns attending classes.

The pre-war years

The Seidenbeutels had their own studio at the Jewish dorm on Sierakowskiego Street in the Warsaw district of Praga. Frequently, they would go on field trips to small villages and paint en plein air. One of the towns they visited frequently was Kazimierz Dolny. During the late 1920s and early 1930s they would arrive for a 'season' carrying over 24 stretched canvases each, and complete them in 30–60 days. These canvases would be exhibited in Warsaw and Krakow, and would sell out. They met with other artists and inspired younger ones, such as Chaim Goldberg. They met Goldberg when he was eleven years-old and bought his en plein air gouache; it was Goldberg's first sale.

The Holoucaust Years

During World War II and the Nazi occupation, the Seidenbeutels were confined within the ghetto in Białystok where they worked at the House of Art in the army. They may have belonged to a group of painters, set up by Oskar Steffens, who copied reproductions of paintings by old masters. The twins were later sent to the Stutthof concentration camp, from which they were marched to the death camp in Flossenbürg. They were executed by the camp’s guards one day before the camp was liberated. Izaak Celnikier, also a painter, was a witness to their deaths.

Their unique bond

The Seidenbeutels had a unique bond that intrigues experts to the present day. One brother would start a painting while the other completed it, and the signature was their surname. They signed their paintings this way even when completing a painting individually.

Their similar looks became the subject of jokes, the most popular of which is the following:

"They were united forever except when they visited the hairdresser’s. The secret is that after agreeing on a desired hairstyle one of them enters the salon and, sitting back in the armchair, gets a hairdresser to cut his hair as he becomes absorbed in reading an illustrated magazine. After a gorgeous haircut is done, with hair gel and eau de cologne added, he makes a payment, not forgetting a tip, and he leaves the salon. Not ten minutes pass by when, outraged, he comes back to make a big hassle saying that the hairdresser only gave him a slight comb and didn’t lift a finger to cut his hair properly. And what did he pay for? Is this how a reliable and trustworthy entrepreneur deals with clients? The owner of the barber’s is terrified and asks him for forgiveness; and tells him to be kind enough to take a seat in the armchair once again so that he can make up for his mistake. That is how the Seidenbeutel brothers had their haircut done for half price with plenty of emotions and lots of fun."

List of art works

List of exhibitions