David Bomberg

Lillian Bomberg
Private Collection
Crane Kalman Gallery, London where acquired by the present owner in February 1991

Original canvas. There is some minor craquelure to the pink pigments in the upper third of the composition, only visible upon close inspection. Some further craquelure to the thicker areas of pigment in the chandelier and a spot of paint loss. There are two minor flecks of loss to the right of the chandlier. Also there is a speck of paint loss below the chandelier, and a further speck to the dark green pigment by the upper left edge. Otherwise the work appears in good overall condition with strong passages of impasto. Ultraviolet light reveals some very minor flecks of retouching and stabilization to aforementioned flecks of paint loss. Held in a gilt plaster frame. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
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In 1923, David Bomberg moved with his wife Alice to Palestine, where he painted in and around Jerusalem until his return to London in 1927. The visit was initially the result of a commission, prompted by Sir Muirhead Bone, from the Zionist Organisation to record their work in the area. However, with the assistance and encouragement of patrons such as Sir Edward Marsh, Bomberg came into contact with Sir Ronald Storrs, Military Governor of Jerusalem, who not only bought several paintings from the artist, but encouraged others to do likewise. Storrs was passionate about the preservation of the city and encouraged a number of restoration projects of historic sites in and around the area. The patronage of Storrs and his circle was in part responsible for the variation of handling and range of topographical elements seen in Bomberg's paintings of the city, with works ranging from large-scale detailed panoramas to freely painted oil sketches and drawings which reduce the city to essential forms. Indeed with hindsight we can now see how his experience in Jerusalem was to inform Bomberg's later paintings of Toledo, Cuenca and Ronda.

The present work is one of a small series of paintings and drawings Bomberg completed in 1925 of the Church of St. James. Initially denied access to the 12^th century church which is located in Jerusalem's Armenian quarter, Bomberg's British friends managed to arrange a furtive visit during Holy Week. The artist witnessed the Washing of the Feet ceremony on Maundy Thursday from one of the upper balconies overlooking the central nave, and from this high vantage point he immersed himself in the details of the church and ceremony, revelling in the colours, textures and ornate features of the resplendent building. In the Washing of the Feet, Church of St James, Jerusalem (fig.1, 1925), we see the ceremony in full force, the Bishop washing the feet of the Patriarch of Jerusalem on the left, surrounded by other important members of the church, with the High Altar providing an astonishing gilded backdrop to the scene.

Bomberg did several studies and paintings of the church interior, and the present work appears to be a representation either of a different point during the ceremony, or possibly a different day. The service is very much pared down; visible in the foreground is a single Bishop in his traditional black pointed head covering, surrounded by a small group of priests or ushers. A curtain has been pulled over the High Alter, the top of which is just visible over the hanging bar. The view is cropped, eliminating the arched roof and instead thrusting the sparkling chandelier into prominent focus. The domed altar is still visible on the left, believed to be the original burial place of St James the Less, one of the two saints to which the Church is dedicated.

Instead of focusing on the minutiae of the details, the present work is a supreme example of Bomberg's ability to emphasise the pictorial structure. Delighting in the medium of paint, he uses broad sweeping brushstrokes of rich reds, oranges and yellows, which enliven the surface. Coming on the heels of his abstract work of the mid to late 1910s, the Jerusalem paintings can at first appear a remarkable volte-face by an artist who had seemed to be at the forefront of the avant-garde. However, it seems that Bomberg himself felt that these works were an extension and widening of the prime interest of the earlier paintings, that of pictorial arrangement. As with many of his avant-garde contemporaries, the example of the First World War had caused a re-evaluation of the path his work was taking, and by moving back towards a more representational manner, he allowed himself to rebuild his working methodology.