Charlotte Salomon embarked on the creation of widely eccentric artistic endeavor to save her own life after learning she was the sole survivor of her maternal line all of whom committed suicide. That endeavor was Life? or Theater? – an epic autobiographical work of art created by German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon between 1940 and 1942 while in hiding in the South of France, consisting of over 1300 gouache paintings, of which 769 were selected accompanied by text overlays and musical annotations, which narrate her life story, family tragedies, and experiences in Nazi Germany. Ottilie Moore sheltered Charlotte Salomon from 1938-1943, during WWII. "Life? or Theater?" Charlotte Salomon's magnum opus, dedicated to Ottilie Moore, was created between 1940 and 1942 (eighteen months at L'Hermitage and four months at nearby Hotel Belle Aurore in Saint Jean Cap-Ferrat in the Cote d’Azur).
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