Simon Mondzain (1888-1979) "algiers, Villa Of Abdel-tiff" Oil/cardboard Signed-1967-46x37 Cm

Simon MONDZAIN (Chelm 1877- Paris 1979) “Algiers, Villa d'Abd-El-Tif” Oil on cardboard signed lower right, dated 1967 46 x 37 cm Simon Mondzain was born in Poland, in Chelm near Lublin. His father was a saddler. From childhood, Mondzain knew he wanted to be a painter but clashed with his family. Following an argument, he left his father. In 1905, he entered the Fine Arts School in Warsaw. In 1908, helped by a Jewish association, he left for Krakow. He then entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and discovered French Impressionist painting with Teodor Axentowicz and Josef Pankiewicz. Following his first exhibition in Krakow in 1909, he received a scholarship and left for Paris. In 1910, he continued his studies in Krakow and became friends with Kisling and Zawadowski (Zawado). In 1912, Mondzain settled permanently in Paris and met his friends Kisling, Merkel and Zawado again. When the First World War broke out, Mondzain volunteered in the Polish section of the Foreign Legion. Between 1915 and 1918, he drew his life as a soldier. Mondzain obtained French nationality in 1923 and, the same year, became a member of the Salon des Tuileries. In 1925, he accompanied the painter Jean Launois to Algeria, where he met his future wife, Simone, a doctor. In 1933, the Mondzain family moved to Algiers, and from that time on the painter divided his life between France and Algeria. During the Second World War, he stayed in Algiers with his friends Albert Marquet and André Gide, who found Mondzain to be an outstanding chess player. Between 1939 and 1942, he received many Polish refugees in Algiers. After the war, Simon Mondzain lived between Paris and Algiers, until Algeria's independence in 1962. The family then settled in Montparnasse, where the painter died in 1979.