Isidor Kaufmann

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner in the early 1930s

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in very good condition. The panel on which it is painted is un-reinforced and secure. The paint layer is stable and most likely clean and varnished. There appears to be a small dot of restoration visible under ultraviolet light in the shoulder of the sitter on the far right side.
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In his Portrait of a Rabbi with Tallit, Kaufmann reflects the pride and admiration he felt for the religious life and figures of his Jewish faith. Though Kaufmann lived in Vienna with all the urban comforts available to an artist of great reputation and wealth, his summer visits to Eastern European shtetls allowed him to observe a culture which was part of his heritage but not his everyday life. During these excursions, he documented ethnological, architectural and religious traditions, which he sensed would soon disappear.

In the present painting, Kaufmann endows the sitter with a sense of solemnity and great wisdom. The artist skillfully paints the details of the Rabbi's soft wrinkled skin and graying beard, its humble nature contrasted by the rich fur trim of his streimel and the  luster of the intricate tallit draped over his shoulders. This luxuriously ornate garb was often made from a technique known as Shpanyer Arbeit (Spanish Work), in which silvered metal is wrapped around a thread which is then sewn in decorative patterns—here, a foliate motif shining against the plainer cloth into which it is woven (Jay Weinstein, A Collector's Guide to Judaica, London, 1985, p 164). The work is painted on one of the artist's typical wooden panels, many shipped to the artist from an English supplier, the perfect support for the finely applied pigments, building layers of colored glazes and sharp details made by a fine brush. A front view is the most often used in Kaufmann portraiture, with the viewer's perspective placed slightly below the figure's steady gaze, allowing for a careful study of the Rabbi's form, set against the shallow hazy green-black of the picture space.  The result of such careful examination (both by the viewer and the artist himself) reveals that Kaufmann, more than any other artist of his generation, vividly captured the essence of the religious Jews of the eastern provinces in their dignified settings.