As part of this special auction, we are presenting an exceptional collection of works and archival materials by Wlastimil Hofman, built around one remarkable story: the relationship between the artist and his wife Ada and the Halberthal family of Tel Aviv. The collection traces key moments in the artist’s biography, from his wartime displacement and work in Palestine to the postwar years in Wlastimilówka in Szklarska Poręba. It was during this period that, as the artist himself wrote in his letters, “snow scenes” and “views from the windows” were created and sent to friends, while correspondence became a form of closeness across distance.

The offering includes 22 oil paintings and 22 sketches on paper, revealing the artist’s workshop practice and everyday creative activity. A particularly important place is occupied by the group of works connected with Tel Aviv: portraits of members of the Halberthal family and intimate seaside views documenting the city’s landscape. The auction is completed by a coherent group of archival materials: handwritten letters, photographs, envelopes, press clippings, and exhibition catalogues, which make it possible to trace both the lives of the Hofmans and the realities of artistic practice in the 1940s–1960s.

This is a rare case in which such rich biographical and documentary material accompanies the works of art themselves. Taken together, the ensemble forms a moving story about art that remained with the painter even — or perhaps especially — in the most difficult moments, about memory and gratitude, and about a relationship thanks to which these paintings and letters survived together in a single family archive for decades.