Creator(s)
- Gheorghe Ceglokoff (Subject)
- Gheorghe Ceglokoff (Artist)
Biographical History
Gheorghe Ceglokoff was born on April 15, 1904, in Chisinau, Russia (Chisinau, Moldova), to a Russian couple. Following the October Revolution in 1917, the region of Bessarabia, where Chisinau was located, declared independence from the Russian Empire and joined the Kingdom of Romania. Gheorghe attended the School of Arts in Chisinau. In 1928, he graduated from the Academy of Painting in Dresden, Germany, and returned to Romania. He drew and sketched pieces of miners and other laborers in Bessarabia and the Banat region of western Romania. His association with the laborers contributed to his active involvement in the growing Bessarabian communist movement. In 1933, Gheorghe’s art was included in exhibitions assembled by the Society of Fine Arts in Bessarabia. While in Chisinau, Gheorghe met and married Tatiana (Tania) Baillayre, a young aspiring artist and the daughter of his former teacher. Tania (1916-1991) was born in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia, to painters Auguste Baillayre and Lidia Arionescu-Baillayre. Tania attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the couple later studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. In the mid-1930s, Gheorghe and Tania move to Bucharest, Romania, where he worked as an illustrator and was a political activist. Tania attended the Academy of Fine Arts. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. Poland was divided with the Soviet Union per the German-Soviet Pact. In June 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Hertza. In August, Romania was forced by Germany to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary and, in September, southern regions to Bulgaria. In September 1940, the King abdicated and General Antonescu and the anti-semitic, fascist Iron Guard took power and soon joined the Axis Alliance. On June 22, 1941, Gheorghe was arrested for his communist activism and transported to Targu-Jiu (Tirgu-Jiu) concentration camp in western Romania. On September 2, he was released from the camp and went to the Banat region, where Tania was staying with a community of artists. The couple stayed in Banat until after the war ended in May 1945. Gheorghe exhibited widely and received numerous awards. He was known for his expressive technique which blurred details to soften the emotional impact of the images. In the early 1950’s, Tania divorced Gheorghe, and he returned to Bucharest, where he worked as an engraver or illustrator. Gheorghe, age 60, died on May 7, 1964, in Bucharest.
Archival History
The print reproduction was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Douglas Smith.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Douglas Smith, In memory of Mrs. Kazimiera Goslawska and her husband Mr. Ezra Miller
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Print from a set of eight reproductions of lithographed drawings by Gheorghe Ceglokoff depicting scenes he witnessed in 1941 while a political prisoner in the Romanian concentration camp Târgu Jiu in Transnistria.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Print reproduction of a lithographed drawing, portrait orientation, depicting a bearded man with a walking stick and a bundle holding the hand of a small, curly haired child carrying a pillow walking past concentration camp barracks. The artist’s signature and year, Ceglokoff 41, are printed within the image on the lower left. (8 plates in portfolio : ill. , facsims. ; 36 cm. (plates are approximately 13.500 x 16.000 in.)
People
- Ceglokoff, Gheorghe, 1904-1964.
Corporate Bodies
- Tîrgu Jiu (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- Concentration camps--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Romania--Tirgu Jiu--Pictorial Works.
- Concentration camps in art.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Romania--Tirgu Jiu.
Genre
- Art
- Object