Marta Ehrlich
Lycée Saint-Louis, Paris, 1938
gouache on paper
62.5 × 46.6 cm
MG-1248

Marta Ehrlich (Zagreb, 1910–1980) was a prominent Croatian painter of the 20th century. She graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1934 as a private student of Vladimir Becić, and spent the following year on a study stay in Paris. In the early phase of her work, she drew on Becić’s painterly influence, while in later years she moved closer to a Surrealist poetic approach. She most often painted city views, landscapes, interiors, and still lifes, developing an intimate and imaginative painterly expression. During the 1960s, she increasingly devoted herself to ceramics, producing small-scale sculptures, painted tiles, and plates, while in painting she turned towards abstract expression in the spirit of Art Informel.
At the time of creating the painting Lycée Saint-Louis, Paris, the artist was staying in Paris, where she produced numerous Parisian cityscapes and landscapes in gouache and oil. Simultaneously, her artistic approach became increasingly focused on conveying a poetic and intimate atmosphere, reflecting personal introspection. The Lycée Saint-Louis, a secondary school located in Paris, dominates the central part of the composition. It stands out with its elegant façade and characteristic Parisian roof, including dormer windows and decorative details. The foreground is partially obscured by a tree with slender branches and green leaves. In this work, the artist combines a realistic depiction of the Parisian setting with a subjective, poetic view of Parisian architecture glimpsed through the trees, in keeping with Post-Impressionist tendencies.

Text: Luciana Fuks, Curator for Museum Documentation at the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb