A Portrait of Naphtali Herz Imber by Boris Schatz in an Acid-Etched Frame, Jerusalem, ca. 1910

Boris Schatz (1866-1932), an accomplished painter and sculptor, was the founding director of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem, a national Jewish art academy and center for popular crafts. Established in 1906, the school attracted talented students who were to become the vanguard of a distinctive style of Israeli art that quickly drew admirers from all over the world. In 1929, Bezalel was forced to close due to political and economic factors. Schatz himself died in Denver, CO, while trying to raise funds to reopen the school. However, in 1935, with increased Jewish immigration from Europe, Bezalel was successfully restarted, and it continues to operate to this day.

The subject of the present painting, Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909), was born in Galicia, where he received an intensive traditional Jewish education. In his mid-twenties, he made his first trip to the Land of Israel, which was followed by a series of wanderings that took him as far east as Bombay and as far west as the United States. Imber is best known for his verse, particularly the poem eventually adopted as the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, which Imber originally composed in Jerusalem in 1884.

Given his close associations with the Zionist movement, Imber would have been a natural choice for a portrait by Schatz. This painting was purchased from the Schatz estate by the Kaminetzky family, major collectors of the artist’s work.

Physical Description

Oil on board with deep green paint (10 3/8 x 15 1/2 in.; 264 x 392 mm). Apparently unsigned. Set within a metal-plated wooden frame with a wooden stand, the Bezalel-style metal decorated with flora and fauna (deer, referencing Naphtali), as well as two cherubim spreading their wings above a sunrise at summit; name of subject (Naphtali Herz Imber) lettered in Hebrew at center bottom; the metal slightly tarnished; not examined outside of the frame (15 7/8 x 19 3/8 in.; 403 x 492 mm).