"The Kitten that Forgot How to ask For Food" – A Children's book by Benzion Raskin, Illustrated by Chaim Hanft – ...

"The Kitten that Forgot How to ask For Food" – A Children's book by Benzion Raskin, Illustrated by Chaim Hanft – Sketches for Illustrations and Trial Proofs – Warsaw, 1922
A collection containing the book "The Kitten that Forgot How to ask For Food" by Benzoin Raskin, sketches for the book's illustrations, made by Chaim Hanft, and trial proofs.
• "Chataltulah SheShachecha Eich Tishal Ochel" [The Kitten that Forgot How to ask For Food] by Benzion Raskin, illustrated by Chaim Hanft. [Warsaw]: Tarbut, 5683 [1922].
[8] leaves, 19.5X25 cm. Missing cover. Good-fair condition. Tears to spine. Stains. Creases and fold lines.
• 24 sketches for the illustrations of the book. Some of them in color pens; some on tracing paper.
• Four printed leaves with illustrations and text of the book.
Size and condition vary. Good-fair overall condition. Stains. Tears. Creases.
Chaim Hanft (1900-1951), born in Jedlińsk, Poland, was a graphic artist, sculptor and painter. Hanft was born to a Hassidic family and received traditional education, later studing art under the sculptor Chanoch Glicenstein and at the Warsaw Art School. From 1918 to 1919 he continued his studies in Berlin. During the Polish-Soviet war, he was enlisted, captured by the Russians and sent by them to study at the Moscow art school. Hanft returned to Warsaw and during the 1920s and 1930s illustrated books, children's books and Yiddish journals. He was a member of the Jewish union of artists and sculptors in Poland and took part in the reconstruction of a wooden synagogue in Będzin. He spent the years of World War II in the USSR and later returned to Poland, settling in Wrocław. In 1948 he designed the Jewish pavilion at the exhibition of the regained territories, which celebrated the accomplishments of the Polish regained territories (Wystawa Ziem Odzyskanych); however, shortly before the opening of the exhibition, the authorities closed down the Jewish pavilion, claiming that the Jews must not set themselves apart from the Polish citizens and shut themselves away in ghettoes.
Literature: "Hebrew Illustrations – The Hebrew Illustrated Book for Children" (Hebrew), by Ayala Gordon. Tel Aviv: The Nachum Gutman Museum, 2005. p. 84 and p. 171.