Yisrael Paldi

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Modern Israeli Art in its Beginning 1920 - 1930, May, 1957 
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Twenties in Israeli Art, November, 1982

There is craquelure scattered as well as paint loss on the edges, probably due to reframing. The artist covered the reverse of the canvas with white paint. When viewed under ultra violet light areas of retouching in the sky and on the bottom left are apparent. Overall this work is in good condition.
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Israel Paldi was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine in 1892. In 1909, he emigrated to Palestine and attended the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. Later, he continued his studies at the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Munich. He was a recipient of the Dizengoff Prize in 1943 and 1957. Paldi held numerous exhibitions, including solo shows at the Tel Aviv Museum (1955) and the Israel Museum (1967). Dr. Haim Gamzu describes Paldi as: "one of those early artists who sought their new path by identification with the singular life and living of Israel, both its Oriental and modern aspects, yet by looking at them through the eyes of an expressionist painter" (Dr. Haim Gamzu, Painting and Sculpture in Israel, Tel Aviv, 1958, p. 53).

This depiction of Jaffa situated by the Mediterranean Sea belongs to a small group of masterpieces painted during the 1920s by leading Israeli artists such as Ziona Tajar and Nachum Gutman. In this work Paldi has been inspired by the architectonic elements and the unique landscape of this favoured motif. The dynamic lines of the curving narrow lanes and the whitewashed roofs of the stone houses blending in with the clear blue sea in the background create an intriguing composition in which the viewer is immersed.