Emmanuel Mané-Katz

Mané-Katz spent his entire youth in an atmosphere of religiosity that marked him forever and tirelessly nourished his work. His father was a shamash (the guardian of the synagogue). After studying at the Beaux-Arts in kyiv and Vilnius, he arrived in Paris in 1913 with twenty-five rubles in his pocket. He studied painting at the Beaux-Arts in Paris in Cormon's studio, with Soutine, Krémègne and Kikoïne. In 1914, he could not enlist in the Foreign Legion because of his small size. The same year, he had to return to Russia, which was then at war.

In 1917, after a stay in London, Mané-Katz was appointed professor at the Fine Arts School in Kharkov. In 1921, he visited Baku, Tiflis in Georgia, Moscow, Minsk, Warsaw and returned to Paris. He obtained French nationality in 1927. Mané-Katz's life was punctuated by his many travels. Between 1928 and 1937, he successively visited Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, and returned to Palestine in 1935 and 1937.

In 1939, he was a security guard at the École Militaire in Paris. Arrested by German soldiers in Royan, he managed to escape, reached Marseille and embarked for the United States. He spent the years of the Occupation in New York. After the Liberation, Mané-Katz settled in Paris and travelled tirelessly for the last ten years of his life. He stayed in Israel (1948), South Africa (1950), Japan, India (1957) before returning to New York and then Paris in 1960. His works are kept at the Mané-Katz Museum in Haifa, Israel.