The Letter

  Ben’s five months in Europe ended with a trip to Switzerland to paint in Engelberg and Lucerne. Ben was able to take this trip to “the top of the world,” as a friend wrote on the back of a photo of Ben in the Swiss mountains, because he had received notification from the United […]

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Even as a young man, Ben Solowey was practical. He came to Europe to study and learn, as well as to travel with friends, but he understood that it was crucial for him to use the time to help himself when he returned home. When Ben received permission to paint at the Louvre, his goal […]

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Even though Ben Solowey spent the summer in Paris in 1924, he retained his work ethic. When he was not painting plein air around the city, he took croquis classes at the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs (now known as the Musée des Arts Décoratifs) at 107 rue de Rivoli in the Marsan wing of […]

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After a ten day ocean voyage, Ben Solowey landed in London on June 22, 1924. Ten years earlier he had left the continent as a 14-year-old teenager with his family who were escaping pogroms and forced conscription in St Peterburg, Russia. He knew no English, nor was his education up to American standards. The family […]

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Ben Solowey won many awards while enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Right from the start, his Ramborger Award-winning drawing of an Academy charwoman was reproduced in the school’s catalogue in his sophomore year. Nevertheless, he did not win a Cresson scholarship, which provided at least $1,000 for study abroad. […]

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