Louisa Steenstra, The Netherlands/Canada (from the series Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust)
Artist
Gay Block
(American, born 1942)
Date1988 (printed 2001)
Mediumchromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 18 1/2 × 14 5/8 in. (47 × 37.1 cm)
Support: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Mat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
Support: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Mat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Katherine Ware in honor of Edward J. Osowski, 2012
Object number2012.2
DescriptionWoman seated in chair with her elbows on armrests. Her hair is pinned up and she is wearing eyeglasses, a watch and an engagement ring on her left ring finger. She is wearing a sleeveless dress with a bold pattern.eMuseum Notes
Once a kindergarten teacher and secretary in Holland, Louisa Steenstra quit her job during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands rather than work for that regime. Her husband Albert was involved in the Resistance movement and the couple hid Jewish war refugees in their house. Soldiers raided the house and killed Albert and the refuges but Louisa and her young daughter managed to escape and eventually relocated to Canada. In this portrait, taken after she told the photographer about her life during the war, Louisa Steenstra looks like a sweet and spry grandmother; her eyes are the only clue to the horrors she witnessed.
On View
Not on view
Gay Block
1988 (printed 2001)
