School of Paris - Collection Marek Roefler

Catalogue of the exhibition School of Paris, Marek Roefler Collection, presented at the Musée de Montmartre, Paris (17 October 2025 - 15 February 2026).

The term ‘École de Paris’ was first used in 1925 by French art critic André Warnod. Rather than referring to a specific movement or school of painting, it refers to a broader phenomenon: the influx of foreign artists who settled first in Montmartre and then in Montparnasse before the First World War, and who made Paris their school of art and life.

Many of these artists, who came mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, were of Jewish origin, but there were also artists from Spain (Picasso), Italy (Modigliani), Japan (Foujita), Mexico (Rivera), Great Britain and the United States.

This artistic mix enabled Montmartre and Montparnasse to become the cradles of the avant-garde movements of the first half of the 20th century. Under the brushes of a multitude of international artists, Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism and Post-Impressionism rubbed shoulders and evolved in fertile environments.

It is in this context that Marek Roefler began building his collection in the 1990s, which now forms the permanent collection of the Villa la Fleur Museum in Konstancin-Jeziorna near Warsaw. The Musée de Montmartre is unveiling to the public a selection of emblematic works from this private collection, which honours the contribution of international artists to 20th-century Paris. 

Artists presented : Isaac ANTCHER (Peresecina, 1889 – Malakoff, 1992) Georges ASCHER (Varsovie, 1884 – camp de la mort de Sobibór, 1943) Toshio BANDO (Tokushima, 1895 – BoulogneBillancourt, 1973) Boleslas BIEGAS (Koziczyn, 1877 – Paris, 1954) Marc CHAGALL (Lyozna, 1887 – Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1985) Joseph CSAKY (Szeged, 1888 – Paris, 1971) Xawery DUNIKOWSKI (Cracovie, 1875 – Varsovie, 1964) Stanislas ELESZKIEWICZ (Tchoutove, 1900 – Paris, 1963) Henri EPSTEIN (Lodz, 1891 – Auschwitz ?, 1944) Serge FÉRAT (Moscou, 1881 – Paris, 1958) Tsuguharu FOUJITA (Tokyo, 1886 – Zurich, 1968) David GARFINKIEL (Radom, 1902 – Paris, 1970) Jacques GOTKO (Odessa, 1900 – Auschwitz, 1944) Léopold GOTTLIEB (Drohobytch, 1879 – Montrouge, 1934) Nathan GRUNSWEIGH (Cracovie, 1880 – Paris, 1956) Gustaw GWOZDECKI (Varsovie, 1885 – Paris, 1935) Alice HALICKA (Cracovie, 1889 – Paris, 1974) Henri HAYDEN (Varsovie, 1883 – Paris, 1970) Joseph HECHT (Lodz, 1891 – Paris, 1951) Alice HOHERMANN (Varsovie, 1902 – Birkenau, 1943) Léon INDENBAUM (Tchavoussy, 1890 – Opio, 1981) Michel KIKOÏNE (Homiel, 1892 – Cannes, 1968) Moïse KISLING (Cracovie, 1891 – Sanary-sur-Mer, 1953) Nathalie KRAEMER (Paris, 1891 – Auschwitz, 1943) Roman KRAMSZTYK (Varsovie, 1885 – Varsovie, 1942) Charles KVAPIL (Varnsdorf, 1884 – Paris, 1958) Jean LAMBERT-RUCKI (Cracovie, 1888 – Paris, 1967) Tamara DE LEMPICKA (Varsovie, 1894 – Cuernavaca, 1980) Louis MARCOUSSIS (Varsovie, 1878 – Cusset, 1941) Maurice MENDJIZKY (Lodz, 1890 – Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1951) Sigmund Joseph MENKES (Lviv, 1896 – New York, 1986) Amedeo MODIGLIANI (Livourne, 1884 – Paris, 1920) Simon MONDZAIN (Chełm, 1888 – Paris, 1979) Mela MUTER (Varsovie, 1876 – Paris, 1967) Hélène D’OETTINGEN, dite François ANGIBOULT (Stepanivka, 1885 – Paris, 1950) Chana ORLOFF (Tsaré-Constantinovska, 1888 – Tel HaShomer, 1968) Manuel ORTIZ DE ZÁRATE (Côme, 1887 – Los Angeles, 1946) Joseph PANKIEWICZ (Lublin, 1866 – La Ciotat, 1940) Jules PASCIN (Vidin, 1885 – Paris, 1930) Joseph PRESSMANE (Berestetchko, 1904 – Paris, 1967) Ladislas SLEWINSKI (Stary Białynin, 1856 – Paris, 1918) Chaïm SOUTINE (Smilavitchy, 1893 – Paris, 1943) Léopold SURVAGE (Moscou, 1879 – Paris, 1968) Marie VOROBIEFF, dite MAREVNA (Tcheboksary, 1892 – Londres, 1984) Abraham WEINBAUM (Kamianets-Podilskyï, 1890 – camp de la mort de Sobibór, 1943) Ossip ZADKINE (Vitebsk, 1890 – Paris, 1967) Eugène ZAK (Mogilno, 1884 – Paris, 1926) Sacha ZALIOUK (Radomychl, 1887 – Paris, 1971) August ZAMOYSKI (Jabłoń, 1893 – SaintClardeRiviere, 1970) Jan Waclaw ZAWADOWSKI, dit ZAWADO (Skobelka, 1891 – Aix-en-Provence, 1982)