Biography

Born in Drohobycz as the youngest child of Izaak and Feiga née Tiegerman, the younger half-brother of Maurycy, already deceased by then, a well-known Jewish painter and student of Jan Matejko.

Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, in the studio of Jacek Malczewski – a symbolist whose work would leave a lasting impression on Gottlieb’s individual style. At that time, the artist mainly created portraits as well as symbolic paintings and depictions of Jewish themes.
Attended the studio of Teodor Axentowicz at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków from 1901 to 1902.

Attended Anton Ažbe’s studio in Munich. Met and befriended Elie Nadelman and Eugeniusz Zak there. They moved to Paris together.

Left for Paris where he became involved in the creation of the Ecolé de Paris community that mostly comprised immigrant artists in search of new avant-garde forms in art. Publication, together with Ludwik Cylkow, of Album Litografii [Lithographs]. His painting called Melancholia exhibited at the Salon des indépendants in Paris.

Exhibited regularly at the Parisian salons: Salon d'Automne and Salon des indépendants.

Started the Grupa Pięciu in Kraków in opposition to the professors of the Krakowian Academy of Fine Arts and their "Sztuka" Association of Polish Artists that prioritised purely painterly matters. The group took inspiration from Stanisław Przybyszewski’s neo-Romantic ideas as well as from the oeuvres of Stanisław Wyspiański and Jacek Malczewski. Typical of the work of the Grupa Pięciu was an expressionist vision of the world and the individual, interlaced with symbolic content. Its members laid great emphasis on giving expression to individual artistic experience, and juxtaposing a vision of the spiritual world with art’s internal mimesis and utilitarianism. Other members of the group included: Wlastimil Hofman, Mieczysław Jakimowicz, Jan Rembowski, Witold Wojtkiewicz and Tymon Niesiołowski. The group’s first exhibition was held in Kraków, at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts. Gottlieb mainly produced deeply symbolic portraits.

Moved to Jerusalem to head a chair at the Faculty of Painting of the newly founded Bezalel School of Arts and was among its first professors. Fascinated by Palestinian landscape, he painted views in vivid colours.

Lived in Paris. His art began to evolve towards an exploration of colour, enhancing the spiritual significance of his paintings. In this period he also began examining Christian themes, which resonated widely with art critics, particularly the 1910 painting The Lord’s Supper, exhibited in Paris and Lviv. Evident in these works was a tendency towards archaisation, achieved through the application of old artistic techniques which evoked the spirit of religious frescoes. At the same time, his paintings continued to feature Jewish themes, or portrayed the artist's Jewish friends. In 1910, Gottlieb painted a portrait-epitaph of his mother, The Image of My Mother, of Blessed Memory – Felicia née Tiegerman, with a Hebrew inscription in the background.

Contributed to an exhibition of Polish art held at the gallery José Dalmau in Barcelona. The show also contained works by Mela Muter who had painted a portrait of Leopold in 1911.

Spent summer in Spain. Became friends with Mexican painter Diego de Rivera, their travels across Spain brought fascination with the art of El Greco and the landscapes from around Toledo. Both artists visited Mela Mutter who was staying in the area. Gottlieb painted a portrait of Diego de Rivera, today known under the title Mexican.

His stay in Paris before the outbreak of the First World War culminated in a social scandal – a notorious duel with swords between Gottlieb and painter Mojżesz Kisling, referred to by the latter as the “third partition of Poland.” The reason behind the conflict that arose between the two Jewish artists remains unknown.

In the same year, Gottlieb went to Austria and joined the Polish Legions. During his service, he produced nearly 1,000 portraits of Polish soldiers as well as scenes from the daily life in the Legions, displayed at numerous shows in Poland and abroad.

Publication of the suite of drawings Polskie Legiony [Polish Legions]. Gottlieb joined the Polish Expressionists (Formists) and contributed to their exhibition at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Kraków.

Stayed in Zakopane as a professor of drawing and painting at the Free School of Fine Arts, run by the Polish Formists. The teaching staff also included Leon Chwistek, Tymon Niesiołowski, Zbigniew Pronaszko and August Zamoyski.

On 18 May 1919 in Vienna, Leopold married Aurelia née Polturak (b. 1892, Lviv – d. 1943, Auschwitz). She was the daughter of Otylia and Markus Polturak (1866 – 1937). Aurelia’s father was a partner in an oil extraction company in Galicia (Borysław, Jasło). In May 1920, their first daughter Miriam [Myriam] was born, followed two years later by Ewa [Eva].

Originally from Lviv, Aurelia began her studies in Berlin (1914). Around 1917, she obtained a PhD in the Humanities from the University in Vienna where she then worked. Her doctoral dissertation was devoted to Max Stirner, the theorist of anarchy.

During WWII, Gottlieb was active in the Jewish underground in Lyon within the framework of the Federation of Jewish Societies in France and, from April 1942, in the Union Générale des Israélites de France, the successor of the Federation.

Moved to Vienna; his style grew more austere evolving towards increasingly abstract forms. Typical of his earlier work, especially portraits, the psychological insight and attention to symbolical message gave way to synthesis, rhythmisation of form and a subdued colour palette achieved through the use of tempera. His paintings took on – in his own words – a “fresco-esque, tapestry-like” character. While still present in his art, biblical themes from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament intertwined with new subjects: scenes from the lives of circus performers and paupers, showing ordinary people at work or rest. His pieces became more static, imbued with mysticism, depicting an unreal world.

Zygmunt Klingsland, brother of the artist's friend Mela Muter, gave the following description of Gottlieb’s work: “Composition is central to his work, and there is often a clear tendency to elevate the simplest scenes of daily life to biblical parables or mysteries.” The critic also indicated the increasingly harmonious and rhythmic composition of his paintings in which the human face was stripped of individual features in favour of painterly exploration: “These arealistic figures whose faces lack distinct features – so represented  - appear in their full painterly particularity which is collective indeed, but also transparent, firm and, more importantly, in perfect harmony with nature.” In Vienna, he took part in a Secession show and joined the Künstlerbund Hagen.

He was one of the artists participating in the Exhibition of Polish Artists in Paris, to which he returned shortly thereafter. A regular contributor to Parisian salons, he also did portraits for a living. Les Ecrivains Reunis, a renowned Parisian publishing house, commissioned him to paint forty portraits of prominent Parisian politicians, scientists, artists and industrialists, including Alfred Chłapowski, Polish ambassador to Paris, Pablo Picasso and Marie Curie-Skłodowska.

Settled permanently in Paris. Exhibited actively. He regularly visited Collioure and Cagnes, committing to canvas views of these Mediterranean ports.

A biography of Leopold Gottlieb was published with a preface by André Salmon.

Joined the Rytm group. In Paris, he contributed to the Modern Polish Art show staged by Chil Aronson, displayed at the Galerie Bonaparte. Themes related to death and transience began to surface in Gottlieb’s art; the artist used a light pastel palette oscillating between hues of pearl, pale blue and pink. Gottlieb kept reworking his pictures, producing several versions of the same subject matter as, for instance, in the case of the painting Water Carrier.

Died suddenly in Paris. The last exhibition of his work took place at Jadwiga Zakowa’s gallery one month before his death. After his demise, his wife Aurelia continued to write to her husband, recalling and analysing his pieces and thus providing a valuable insight into Gottlieb’s art as well as an art-historically relevant interpretation of it.