Biography of Henri Epstein
Henri Epstein, born in Łódź (Russian Empire) on January 14, 1891 or June 20, 1892 and died in deportation to Auschwitz (Third Reich) in 1944, is a French painter of Russian origin, attached to the School of Paris. Son of Samuel Epstein and Anne Czapnik, he lost his father, a bookseller, at the age of three and was raised by his mother, who encouraged his precocious talent for painting.
Henri Epstein began his training at the Jakub Kacenbogen School of Drawing in Łódź, where he was a fellow student of Zygmunt Landau, before continuing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich until 1910. During a first visit to Paris in 1912, he participated in the creation of the short-lived magazine *Machmadim*, devoted to Jewish art, alongside other artists such as Pinchus Krémègne, Léon Indenbaum, and Isaac Lichtenstein. He then returned to serve in the Polish army and settled in La Ruche in 1913.
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At La Ruche, Henri Epstein became friends with Amedeo Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine, and Pinchus Krémègne, and attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He was noticed by the police commissioner and collector Léon Zamaron, who considered him the "most gifted painter" of his time. Zamaron's choices influenced those of Jonas Netter, who also included Epstein in his collection.
Through his marriage to Suzanne Dorignac, one of the four daughters of the painter Georges Dorignac, Henri Epstein became the brother-in-law of the painter André Hébuterne, as well as the sculptors Marcel Damboise and Louis Dideron. From 1930, he made several trips to Brittany with his patron, Doctor Gilles, and also spent many moments painting on location in the Old Port of Marseille.
In 1938, Henri Epstein bought a house in Épernon and moved there. He was arrested by the Gestapo, probably following a denunciation, and taken to the Chartres remand center on February 23, 1944. He was interned in the Drancy camp on February 24, then deported on March 7 by convoy No. 69 to Auschwitz, where he died in deportation.
