Portrait by Josef Nassy of a Red Cross doctor in a physician's smock done when both were prisoners
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 28.750 inches (73.025 cm) | Width: 24.500 inches (62.23 cm) | Depth: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 19.000 inches (48.26 cm) | Width: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm)
Creator(s)
- Josef Nassy (Artist)
Biographical History
Josef Nassy was born in 1904 in Paramaribo, Suriname (the Dutch Guiana.) He was the seventh of nine children. His father Adolf was a prosperous businessman and member of Parliament. He was a descendant of Jews who fled Spain during the Inquisition, and spoke Yiddish, but was not religious. Josef was also of African descent. In 1919, Josef joined his father, in New York. He had taken art classes since a child, and now attended the Pratt Institute. He received a degree in industrial electrical engineering and worked in London and Paris installing movie theatre sound systems. In 1938, he attended the Academie des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium, to study painting. Nassy was earning a living as a portrait artist when World War II began. In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Belgium. Josef was arrested in April 1942 as an enemy national, as he had an American passport. Nassy was held in Beverloo transit camp in Leopoldsburg, Belgium, before being transferred to Laufen internment camp and its subcamp Tittmoning. While imprisoned, Nassy was supplied with art materials by the International YMCA. He created more than 200 paintings and drawings chronicling the people and the appearance of the camp, with works featuring the barbed wire, watch towers, and prison bars. The United States Army liberated Laufen internment camp on May 5, 1945. Nassy passed away in 1976.
Archival History
The painting was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2006 by Morris and Nancy Baker.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Morris and Nancy Baker
Scope and Content
Portrait painted by Josef Nassy as a gift for Dr. Francis W. Roscoe when both men were prisoners of war in Laufen internment camp in Germany. Nassy painted two portraits of Dr. Roscoe, this one in his doctor's smock, and 2006.491.1 in civilian clothes, in appreciation for his efforts in improving health conditions in the camps. Dr. Roscoe was a senior medical officer and inspector for the International Red Cross for Allied prison camps in Germany. In 1943, he condemned conditions at a Jewish concentration camp, Tittmoning, and was arrested on the scene by Heinrich Himmler and sent to Laufen. The Red Cross attempted to gain his release, but Roscoe remained imprisoned at Laufen for two and a half years, until the end of the war. Nassy, an expatriate black artist, was arrested in German occupied Belgium in 1942 for holding an American passport in 1942 and sent to Laufen internment camp. While imprisoned, Nassy was supplied with art materials by the International Red Cross and he created more than 200 paintings and drawings. The United States Army liberated Laufen on May 5, 1945.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Rectangular oil painting on canvas featuring the portrait of a middle-aged white man with short, black, and gray hair, parted down the center, with gold rimmed glasses. The body is angled to the right and is looking at the observer; the right shoulder is in shadow.The face is tense and the shoulders droop. The subject wears a white physician's coat with a mandarin collar and a stethoscope around the neck. The coat's left breast pocket is decorated with the caduceus; in the pocket is a pen. The dark gold frame is ornate and flecked with pink, white, and gray paint. The inner frame is white with dark gold scroll molding; the outer frame is dark gold with dark filigree molding.
People
- Nassy, Joseph Johan Cosmo, 1904-1976.
Subjects
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany.
- Concentration camp inmates as artists--Germany--Biography.
- World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, American.
- World War, 1939-1945--Art and the war.
- Prisoners of war--Medical care--Germany--History--20th century.
- Prisoners of war in art--Germany.
Genre
- Object
- Art