Carol Deutsch

Carol Deutsch (1894-1944) was a Belgian-Jewish painter who was murdered in the Holocaust. A student of James Ensor, Deutsch is most known for his Art Nouveau illustrations of the Bible.

Having had an Orthodox upbringing, Deutsch had not received art training into his twenties, when working as a fur trader in Ostend, he became close with James Ensor. Ensor recognized his talent and became his teacher, and Deutsch became part of Ostend's artistic scene, being influenced by Constant Permeke and Léon Spilliaert. He painted in an Expressionist style, both landscapes and people. He became the chairman of Ostend's Jewish community in 1929, but soon was nearly excommunicated for painting provocative nudes. He then turned to cityscapes and portraits. He visited Mandatory Palestine in 1936, which made his focus change to Jewish themes, such as the Western Wall. He was arrested with his wife Fela by the Gestapo in 1943, and taken to Auschwitz. He was murdered by shooting at Buchenwald in December 1944. His daughter donated his collection of 99 Pentateuch illustrations to Yad Vashem.