View of St Thomas's church from Sefton Internment Camp
Date made: 1940
Description: A pen and ink drawing of St Thomas's church, viewed from the Sefton Civilian Internment Camp. The drawing is entitled 'S Thomas Douglas I.o.M.' and is signed in ink by the artist, Martin Bloch. The drawing is a view from inside Sefton Camp looking towards the seaward side entrance to St Thomas's church with the large arched doorway and steps leading up to it. The drawing shows two guards on sentry duty outside of the Sefton Camp.
The drawing is heavily worked with the ink rapidly and heavily 'scratched' onto the paper, a page torn from a book; note the torn left hand edge. The drawing is window mounted in a larger card mount and has a handwritten label on reverse 'Entrance to St Thomas's Douglas 1940'.
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: 20.5 cm x 27 cm
Materials: ink, paper
Object name: drawing
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 2008-0115/3
Subject tags : #WW2INTERNMENTMUSEUMCOLLECTIONS