Aizik Feder

Adolphe Féder (16 July 1886 – 13 December 1943) was a Jewish-Ukrainian painter and illustrator. He moved to France in 1908, where he remained until his deportation and subsequent murder at the hands of the Vichy regime. Féder is best-known today for the artwork he produced of those interned with him in the Drancy internment camp. His involvement in the organization would force him to flee to Berlin at the age of 19.

Following his time in Berlin, Féder moved to Geneva before moving to Paris in 1908 to study at the Académie Julian. At the Académie he studied painting and worked closely with the French Impressionist, Henri Matisse in his workshop.

Visit to Palestine In 1926, Féder made a trip to Palestine. On his trip, he encountered many Judaic elements, which he painted. The trip's impact on him yielded many of his most notable paintings, such as "Juif à barbe tenant un plateau" ("Bearded Jew holding a tray"). When Féder returned to Paris, he brought many of these paintings back with him, which garnered him recognition in the Parisian artistic community. He and his wife were arrested on 10 June 1942 and imprisoned in Cherche-Midi prison; he was transferred to the Drancy internment camp in September 1942.

Career Féder's success came in 1912 when his landscape works were displayed at the Salon d'Automne.

When Féder's work appeared in the Fearon Galleries in 1923, his work received great praise. An art critic, writing on Féder's work, said "Adolphe Féder struck me as the most original in his finely austere 'Joueur de Biniou' and more mirthful still life." A monograph on Féder was written in 1929 by Gustave Kahn.