The Israel Museum, Jerusalem | Ticho House

Ticho House, situated in the downtown area, is filled with the atmosphere of old Jerusalem, with the art of Israel's beloved painter Anna Ticho (1894 -1980) and with the music of immigrant and other artists who appear here in concert every Friday morning. Add to this a light meal in the serene garden restaurant of the Ticho House, and a memento or two purchased in the Israel Museum Shop on the premises, and you have a total experience "away from it all" right in the center of town. (You won't want to leave without picking up a copy of the beautifully illustrated Ticho House, A Jerusalem Landmark.) Check out What's On for storytelling theater, poetry readings, chamber concerts, and other special events at the Ticho House. Entrance free.

Ticho House was one of the first houses in Jerusalem built outside the Old City Walls. It was built in the second half of the nineteenth century by an Arab dignitary.
Among its first occupants was the family of the notorious antiquities forger, Shapira (The house is described in the memoirs of his daughter Miriam Harry, La petite fille de Jerusalem.)
Dr. Avraham Albert Ticho and his cousin Anna were born at the end of the last century in Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Dr. Ticho completed his medical studies in Vienna where he specialized in ophthalmology at the Rudolph Hospital. Anna began studying art at the age of fifteen also in Vienna.
In 1912 Dr. Ticho was sent by the Frankfurt based organization Lema'an Tzion to open an eye clinic in Jerusalem. Anna followed him and the two were married in the same year.

The impact of the Jerusalem landscape, with its barren hills, was such that for a number of years Anna Ticho could not paint. She began drawing again while in Damascus where her husband was stationed during World War I.
The Tichos' bought the house in 1924. They converted the lower storey into an eye clinic which served the population of Jerusalem, rich and poor alike, until Dr. Ticho's death in 1960.
Anna served as his assistant and at the same time began going out into the landscape and drawing the hills, views and figures of Jerusalem. Although she used different media over the years. these remained the chief subjects of her work.

The Tichos, throughout their long lives, were active in Jerusalem's social and cultural life. After her husband's death, Anna continued to live and work in the same house until her own death in 1980. Her work was widely acclaimed and her drawings are to be found in many museums in this country and abroad. She was also the recipient of many honorary titles and awards, the last being the Israel Prize which she received in 1980.

Irit Salmon
Curator, Ticho House