View of Castle Street and St Thomas's church from Sefton Internment Camp
Date made: 1940
Description: A stencil print (?) on thick dark cream, buff coloured paper of Sefton Camp. The print is entitled 'Sefton Camp 1940' and is signed in pencil and in the print by the artist, Martin Bloch. The print is a view from inside Sefton Camp looking towards St Thomas's church and vicarage and the end of Castle Street. The print shows internees outside the tobacconist's shop and the Argyle Hotel, adjacent to the Sefton Hotel. A guard with a rifle is stood by a sentry box between the inner and outer barbed wire fences.
Martin Bloch (1883-1954) was born in Neisse, Silesia (now Nysa, Poland). He initially studied music and architecture in Berlin, but later took up painting and was largely self-taught. He was interned first in Huyton Camp, Liverpool and then transferred to the Sefton Camp in Douglas in 1940, his work appeared in the Sefton Review.
Background:
There were many celebrated modern artists interned on the Isle of Man during the Second World War, they were forced to flee Nazi Germany as the regime suppressed so called ‘degenerate’ art. Jewish artists were doubly vulnerable. We have an internationally significant collection of works created in the internment camps, with many of those artists going on to have high profile careers after the war.
Measurements: overall: 25 cm x 32 cm
Materials: paper
Object name: print
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 2008-0115/2
Subject tags : #WW2INTERNMENTMUSEUMCOLLECTIONS