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MALVA SCHALEK Prague - Vienna - Theresienstadt - Auschwitz Stages in the Life of a Jewish Artist

Biographical Sketch

Family History and Youth

"Malva Schalek was born in Prague, in 1882, the youngest of four children. Both her mother Balduina and her father Gustav came from Jewish-Bohemian families.

Malva spent her childhood in a stately building in the center of Prague, which also housed the family bookstore. The bookstore served as one of the most important intellectual meeting places of the city. It had grown from the Wohl bookstore, which had been founded in the Jewish Ghetto before 1848. Joseph Schalek, Malva's grandfather, had married Judith Wohl and took over the trade, passing it on to Malva´s father, Gustav. The family music store and a furniture store, Möbel-Schalek, were taken over by Gustavs brother and brother-in law respectively.

Joseph and Gustav were closely involved the Czech national movement. The bookstore served as an intellectual center for the related literary and political circles until Gustav died suddenly in 1889. His widow Balduine carried on and held a sort of literary salon until she remarried. After her marriage to Dr Schnitzer, a young doctor, the family moved to Hohenelbe (Vrchlabi) in northern Bohemia, where Malva and the younger siblings completed their schooling.

Artistic career

After completing three years of higher schooling for girls, Malva was sent to Munich where she attended the “Frauenakademie” for a year. She then moved to Vienna where the extended family provided her with a studio and influential contacts. Her uncle Joseph (Peppi) Simon, banker for Katherina Schratt (the mistress of Emperor Franz Joseph) and brother-in-law of Johann Strauss Jr., was proud of his niece. He gave her an atelier at the top of the Theater an der Wien, which he owned, and introduced her to Viennese society. Photos of society evenings, for example one with Johann Strauß Jr., and Johannes Brahms and correspondence between Strauß and Joseph (von) Simon help to document this period. Summers were spent in Aussig and Leitmeritz, as well as in Bad Ischl, where Malva´s uncle and Johann Strauß owned a house together.

Malva become rather well known as a painter in Vienna and in Prague. She specialized in portraits - many of upper middle class Jewish families – and of well-known actors (Max Pallenberg). She also painted interiors, among others an oil painting of the boudoir of Katherina Schratt."

Zdroj: Malva Schalek (1882 - 1945) - Genealogy