In Brummel's house in Plzeň, there is a permanent exhibition of the painter Edita Hirschová

source: http://www.adolfloosplzen.cz/

Plzeň - The Brummel House in Plzeň offers a new presentation of the works of the forgotten painter Edita Hirschová, which belongs to an exceptionally valuable collection of preserved architectural realizations by the renowned Adolf Loos. The author used to visit this house to see her relatives. The permanent exhibition is also expected to help in finding her works, said David Růžička, a Plzeň monument preservationist and publicist, to ČTK.

"In 1934, Tita, as her French pseudonym was, went to Paris, where she became a member of the local surrealist group La Main à plume (The Hand with a Pen)," said art historian Anna Pravdová, who described the painter’s French activities in her book "They Were Caught by Night - Czech Artists in France in 1938." In Paris, Hirschová illustrated poetry collections, contributed to a group magazine, even after the occupation of France from 1940 to 1942, which became her fate, she noted. For example, in 1935 she created a portrait of Marie Janotová, the first woman journalist Ferdinand Peroutka.

"When I published my book, I had explored the Parisian part of Tita's life. There are still people living in Paris, former members of the surrealist group, who remember her. They recall that she was very beautiful. She was affected by deafness and communicated with people by writing on pieces of paper and through drawings," Pravdová stated. The connection with the Brummel family, which preserved some works and various mementos of their relative, happened by chance. "Thanks to the curiosity of publicist David Růžička, I was connected with Mr. Michal Brummel, who had documented that phase of Tita's life that preceded her departure to Paris," she said.

Hirschová was born on June 6, 1909, in Královské Vinohrady to the family of merchant Karel Hirsch and his wife Elsa, née Brummel. She visited Plzeň to see her cousins Jan and Leo Brummel, clients and friends of Adolf Loos. She graduated from high school and made a living as a fashion designer. As a self-taught artist, she established herself as a painter and illustrator thanks to her significant talent. A promising international career in the circle of Parisian bohemia was destroyed by the war and the Nazis' attempt to annihilate European Jews. During an anti-Jewish raid in June 1942, she was taken away with hundreds of Jewish women. At that time, her Paris studio was presumably destroyed as well. "Her work is scattered all over Europe," said Michal Brummel, the current owner of the Brummel House and initiator of the new exhibition. He plans to publish a monograph in the future.