Maurycy Gottlieb

Emil Beres, Krakow
Dr. Rudolf Beres, Krakow, until 1939
Lidia Kanarek, Holon
Joseph Stieglitz, Tel Aviv (by 1988)

Krakow, National Museum, Memorial Exhibition, 1932-1935
Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the National Museum of Warsaw, In the Flower of Youth, Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1879, 1991
New York, Hebrew Union College, The Collector's Room: Selections from the Michael and Judy Steinhardt Collection, 1993

Moriz Scheyer, Masterpieces by Maurycy Gottlieb, Vienna, 1923, pl. 25
Jan Topass, Moritz Gottlieb, Paris 1930, ill.
Mojzesz Waldman, Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1879: An Artist's Biography, Krakow,  1932, p. 37, ill. p. 26
Josef Sandel, "Maurycy Gottlieb Student of Matejko," Wiedza i Zycie, no. 4, pp. 226-231, 1957, p. 228, ill.
Karol Bernhaut ed., Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1879 (Album), Tel Aviv, 1961, p. 8
Zofia Soltysowa, "The Painter Maurycy Gottlieb," Rocznik Krakowski,1977, no. 47, pp. 148-182,  ill. p. 167, pl. 30; list of works, p. 178
Nehama Guralnik, In the Flower of Youth, Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1879, Tel Aviv, 1991, pp. 137 and 207

Oil on relined canvas. The picture surface is in generally good condition, aside from a very fine web of craquelure across the entire surface. Under UV light, there are scattered small areas of inpainting visible in the background, especially along the edges. There is a pencil eraser sized area of inpainting on the inside of the sitter's left eye and fine lines of inpainting at her chin line and in her neck. There is also one small spot of inpainting in the left lapel of her dress.
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In this rare and important work, Gottlieb reaches deep into a personal and domestic narrative of Polish Jewish life by portraying an aging woman in her Kupka or Sabbath Cap, reading in an interior.  Scholars have long noted Gottlieb’s debt to Rembrandt, whose portraits he revered.  “Inspired by the work of Rembrandt, [Gottlieb produced] portraits distinguished for their intimate mood, the persuasive penetration into the subject’s personality and the use of light as a major element in defining both the figure against its background and the mood” (Nehama Guralnik, In the Flower of Youth: Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1879, Tel Aviv,1991, p. 70).  In this work,  Gottlieb focuses light on the sitter's forehead and kupka, suggesting her intellectual pursuit and the tradition of Sabbath study and introspection, thus capturing a deeply psychological mood. Gottlieb’s  technical skill, and intuition for portraying complex identities resulted in his  widespread renown throughout 19th century artistic communities in Poland and among European Jewry. In spite of his premature death at the age of 23, an obelisk was erected on his gravesite, with a ceremony attended by “different social classes and faiths,” illustrating his appeal throughout different religious and ethnic cricles (Ezra Mendelsohn, Painting a People: Maurycy Gottlieb and Jewish Art, Brandeis, 2002, p. 169). Today, Gottlieb is considered one of the most significant Jewish artists of the nineteenth century.