Isidor Kaufmann

Please note the additional provenance:
Sale: Hagsburg, Feldman, Geneva, June 19, 1989, lot 51/146, illustrated (and as cover)
Private Collection
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above through an intermediary by the present owner

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. The panel on which it is painted is a single piece of mahogany which is unbroken and shows no cracks or instability to the surface. The paint layer is probably slightly dirty yet there appears to be no retouches. The varnish is a little uneven and seems to have been applied rather sloppily in some areas. It is a consideration to remove the recent varnish and replace it with a more accurate varnish. Overall however, the condition of this picture is excellent.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

In the latter part of the 1890's, Kaufmann's sense of the importance of religion in his life and art deepened. Two events spurred this evolution. The first began in 1894, when Kaufmann spent the first of many summers traveling in Eastern Europe, searching for authentic Jewish communities, to be transformed into subjects for his trademark oils on mahogany panel. Kaufmann was seized by a desire to elevate his subjects from pleasant genre views, content to tell a story, to scenes of high religious significance. The other important event occurred in 1899, when the artist donated a fully furnished Sabbath room to Vienna's Old Jewish Museum. The artist filled this room with the artifacts which would later populate countless oil paintings of rabbis and the devout members of their communities.

Travels to Moravia, Upper Hungary, the shtetls of "Russian Poland" and Brova in Galicia provided Kaufmann with ample visions of contemporary Jewish life. Armed with his sketches, he would return to Vienna after months of wandering in what he called his "Promised Land", to augment what he had observed in his studio. Never content to base his works on sketches and memories alone, Kaufmann painted in the Old Jewish Museum, where his Sabbath room allowed firsthand inclusion of specific objects to fill in the backgrounds of his powerful portraits.

In the present work, the Rabbi is shown very close to the viewer, seemingly enveloped by the shawl he wears and the Torah curtain behind him. His expression is one of intellectual engagement and he seems to pause, in the middle of a thought. He wears a kaftan and simple black kippa on his head. The artist used turpentine to achieve his thin glazes, layering the paint as seen here in the fine strands of the old man's silvery grey beard. The work's vibrant colors stem from the tallith, or prayer shawl that he wears. The atara, the ornamental part around his neck, shimmers with gold, and the folds of white fabric with black stripes act as a bold compositional element within the portrait. The Torah curtain's decorative flowers and Hebrew letters make for an almost abstracted backdrop. The curtain, like many of the props and furnishings found by Kaufmann on his travels for the Old Jewish Museum's Sabbath room, appears in many of the artist's works.

Ultimately, the power of this portrait lies in the artist's ability to capture his sitter's calm and pious spirit, incorporating beautifully rendered details.