Alfred Aaron Wolmark 1877-1961

Canvas not lined. There is some widely-spaced craquelure; soiled varnish. Under UV light: scattered inpainting on verious areas of the background with larger areas at center of canvas and along the vertical dark area next to the window at left (these retouches can be seen with the naked eye); only a few minor retouches to the group of figures.
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Known as a modern British colorist, Wolmark's early paintings of traditional Jewish subjects are rare and highly prized. Born in Warsaw in 1877, Wolmark moved to England with his family where he spent time in London's East End, the heart of the Jewish immigrant community. In 1895 he enrolled at the Royal Academy where he trained under some of the most important Victorian painters of the time, among them Lord Leighton, Sir Everett Millais and the Jewish painter Solomon J. Solomon. Early on, he expressed his admiration for Rembrandt and his early paintings reflect Rembrandt's influence in overall composition and tonal qualities. It was during this early stage in his career that he produced a number of paintings of Jewish religious life, an interest that was fueled by two lengthy trips to Poland between 1903 and 1906, where he went in order "to steep himself further in the old ways." (Peter Gross, Rediscovering Wolmark; A Pioneer of British Modernism, London, 2004, pp. 9-11)