Isidor Kaufmann

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Description

Isidor Kaufmann
Portrait of a Boy
signed Isidor Kaufmann (lower right)
oil on panel
10 by 8 1/4 in.
26 by 20 cm

Provenance

Acquired by the father of the present owner circa 1950
Thence by descent

Exhibited

Vienna, Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien, Rabbiner, Bocher, Talmudschüler, Bilder des Wiener Malers Isidor Kaufman, 1853-1921, February 24-May 7, 1995

Literature

G. Tobias Natter, Isidor Kaufmann, Vienna, 1995, p. 210, illustrated p. 211

Catalogue Note

A boy dressed in Hasidic clothing arrests the viewer with his direct gaze. His beautiful blue eyes, pink lips and jauntily tied red scarf (the only secular element of his clothing) present a visual counterbalance to his staid black jacket and velvet spodek, and the soft brown backdrop against which he is placed. Kaufmann seems almost to flaunt his considerable talent at painting texture: the fur decoration on his spodek is so rich and tactile, it is hard not to reach out and touch it. The meaning of the Hebrew lettering on the wall is indecipherable, but its gentle golden glow contributes to the beauty of Kaufmann’s harmonious and lovely image of his young son Eduard.