Mané-Katz 1894-1962

Galerie Motte, Geneva
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1961

Robert S. Aries, Mané-Katz, The Complete Works, Vol. I, 1970, no. 413, p. 128, illustrated

Canvas has not been lined. Surface is very clean. Small dent, less than a 1/4 inch in diameter at center of left edge. Under UV: no sign of inpainting. Overall this work is in very good condition.
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In the Bar Mitzvah Mané-Katz uses sweeping loose brushstrokes and a bright Fauvist palette to capture the intimacy of a joyous and monumental moment in the life of a young Hassidic Jew, such as the coming of age – the Bar Mitzvah.  Waldemar George refers to the work of this important École de Paris artist as follows: 'The Jewish background, inconspicuous or absent in the work of many of his contemporaries, can hardly be escaped or avoided in the work of Mané-Katz...His devout father, shammash (synagogue beadle) at Kremenchug in the Ukraine, was shocked to see his son choose the career of an artist...Here [in Ukraine in 1914] he [Mané-Katz] began to treat Jewish themes and subjects which he saw around him, elaborating and magnifying them often in poetic terms and on a grandiose scale.... Like many other Jewish painters, he has stressed, in his works, the spiritual aspects of all that he paints.' Waldemar George in Cecil Roth, Jewish Art, Tel Aviv, 1961, pp.662-663).