FINE art work of exceptional drawings showcasing unique talents of a late well–known prominent artist are on display for 12 months at the Burke Museum.
Twenty–five works in the museum by German born Ernest Marcuse (1900–1985) depicting various Indigo Shire landscape scenes and buildings in Beechworth, Yackandandah and Chiltern from his attraction to Victoria's North East have been donated by his son Peter.
Burke Museum collections manager Ashleigh Giffney said Ernest had been born, raised and educated in Berlin.
"He attended some of the best design and art schools but with World War II and when the Nazi Party took over Germany in the early 1930s, being Jewish it became increasingly difficult for him to find work," she said.
In late 1938 Ernest moved to London where he married and in the following year undertook a voyage to Australia where the couple had been accepted as refugees being part of the Jewish displacement that fled the rise of Nazism in Europe.
Latest Stories
Ashleigh said he undertook a short stint working at the Argus paper in Melbourne as a war time illustrator after arriving in Australia.
Ernest became a casualty of the Australian Government's policy initiated at the time where anyone born in an enemy country became a stateless individual.
"Dismissed from the newspaper, he had a lot of his citizenships rights removed and as he couldn't work he undertook his own work as a commercial artist where he was commissioned but in 1942 regained his citizenship," Ashleigh said.
"And from there, he was employed by the Australian Defence Force, and asked to undertake similar illustrations as he did for the Argus."
Bonegilla had been Ernest's first introduction to the North East when stationed there at the officers' training school.
"On his time off, he travelled to other regional towns including Yackandandah, Beechworth and Chilton, and he would illustrate the landscape," Ashleigh said.
"His works are in places such as the National Portrait Gallery, the National Art Gallery, New South Wales Art Gallery as well as the Australian War Memorial."
Burke Museum and Cultural Heritage manager Cameron Auty thinks visitors who see the display will gain a deeper insight into World War II, being a refugee, and how intriguing it would have been for a Jewish person from Berlin, to all of a sudden find himself in a place like Yackandandah sketching the local museum.
"It was a huge journey," he said.
Grant funding has been received from the Australian Government Cultural Gifts Program for acquisition of the drawings while framing has been funded with a grant from the Culture, Heritage and Arts Regional Tourism (CHART) program administered by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association Incorporated (AMaGA).
