Ervin Bossányi (1891-1975)

Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1906

inscribed and titled (to artist's label on the reverse)

oil on canvas

68 x 50cm.

Ernesztine (née Boschan) was born in Baja in south-west Hungary, into a Jewish family originally from Bohemia. Family originally from Bohemia. She married Adolf, the son of a Jewish immigrant known as Bernath Bereslava after his village in (probably) Ukraine. The family name was "Germanicised" to Breslauer, but after his marriage, Adolf changed it again by taking his wife's name Boschan and adding "yi" to Hungaricize it. The couple settled in Regöce, 25km from Baja, where Karoly and Ervin were born, then moved back to Baja, then Budapest, where they learned learned of Karoly's death. Ernesztine returned to her hometown after Adolf's death in 1930. In 1943, she was deported to Auschwitz, aged 91, with virtually all the other Jews of Baja. Ervin's stained glass window, entitled Noli me tangere, donated to the V&A, celebrates her memory.