JUNI 2015
Artifact of the month for June 2015
Portrait painting
Portrait painting
Erik Otto Seligmann (1916 – 1943)
Erik Otto Seligmann was born in Christiania (Oslo) as one of three sons to Richard Sally Seligmann and his wife Luise (b. Heilbut). Richard Sally Seligmann came to Norway from Germany in 1905 and soon established himself as a successful merchant. In 1915 He bought the property Halvdan Svartes gate 30b in Oslo’s west end for 26 000 kroner, a substantial sum in those days. Richard Seligman later worked as editor of the magazine Leather & Footwear, was also a lifelong member of the museum association, and the one who initiated the establishment of a Norwegian shoe museum at the Technical Museum in 1941.
Erik Otto Seligmann became a trained advertising designer. He had just about started his professional career when on the 26th of October 1942 he was arrested, along with his brother, father and grandfather and sent to Berg prison camp. A month later, the whole of Erik’s family, including his mother Luise and grandmother Rosalie, was deported to Auschwitz. No one survived.
Portrait of him self
All we have left after Erik Otto Seligmann are two portrait paintings, where as one is signed Erik Otto, 1940. The paintings are a gift to the museum from the portrayed - Jan Aaser himself.