Arnold Borisovich Lakhovsky 1880-1937

Although best known for his landscapes, Arnold Lakhovsky also painted a number of important portraits. The Conversation serves as a rare example of portraiture from his late career, after he moved to the United States. He painted several versions of this work while visiting the famous Yiddish theatre critic A. Mukdoni in New York or Chicago. At least four of the sitters are members of a traveling Polish Yiddish theatre company, though it seems that Mukdoni is the fifth, for he kept the painting for himself and it remained in his family's collection for many decades.