Bruno Schulz

Private collection, New York

Jerzy Ficowski, The Drawings of Bruno Schulz, Evanston, Illinois, 1990, no. 18, another version illustrated p. 65

Bruno Schulz was born to a well-to-do family in Austrian-controlled Poland. He was interested in the arts early on, and pursued his formal studies in architecture. Schulz was a gifted draftsman and an equally gifted writer; his literary achievements earned him the Polish Academy of Literature's prestigious Golden Laurel award in 1938. Beginning in 1920, Schulz began work on his seminal Book of Idolatry, which explores the themes of childhood memories, of often highly sexualized magic, of dreams, and perhaps most importantly, of the woman as a subject of adoration. The present work certainly refers back to the latter theme, representing the biblical Susanna (though modernized and wearing thigh-high stockings) who is observed by lecherous voyeurs at bath. Another version of the present work is in the collection of the Museum of Literature, Warsaw.