1894-1980
Anna Ticho became famous for her drawings of the Jerusalem hills. She was born in Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Czech Republic) in 1894. At the age of 15, she began to study drawing in Vienna. In 1912 she immigrated to Palestine with her cousin, the respected ophthalmologist Avraham Albert Ticho (1883-1960), whom she later married. They settled in Jerusalem, where Dr. Ticho opened an eye clinic and Anna worked as his assistant, continuing to create art.
While the dramatically different light of the Middle East and the starkness of the landscape inhibited her artistic pursuits at first, in the 1930’s Anna Ticho went back to drawing and painting. It was then that she produced many of the distinctive drawings of the hills of Jerusalem and portraits of local people for which she became well known.
In 1924, the couple purchased a large house surrounded by gardens, built in 1880 for the Nashashibis, a prominent local family, where they lived and worked. Toward the end of her life, she willed the house, her art collection, including many of her own works, and her husband’s extensive Judaica collection to the city of Jerusalem. She died in 1980. Ticho House operates today as a branch of the Israel Museum, and houses a popular restaurant and cafe.
Today, Anna Ticho’s drawings and watercolours can be found in major museums around the world.
