NAHUM GUTMAN | THE THREE ANGELS

estate of the Artist

Shulamit Gallery, Jaffa, Israel

Sale: Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, May 31, 1990, lot 29

Sale: Ben-Ami Art Auctioneers, Tel Aviv, July 2, 1991, lot 38

Acquired at the above sale

Gutman's fascination with life in the land of Israel is inherent throughout the artist's oeuvre. Whether he is depicting contemporary scenes from daily life or stories from the land's rich Biblical past, his colors are bright, his scenes are vibrant and his brushstrokes are expressive. Although influenced by artists such as Renoir, Picasso, Rousseau and especially Raoul Dufy, Gutman had his own unique style which combined modernist trends, exotic orientalist elements, fine illustrative lines and a narrative and vivid depiction of the building of a new life. "We didn't want to paint solemn Jews in synagogues or at the Western Wall. We wished to depict the country's landscapes and their different hues... We sensed that only one thing would bind them together.... seeing Jews of the kind we learned about in the Bible. Painting landscapes in sharp, frothy colors" (Nachum Gutman quoted in Gideon Ofrat, One Hundred Years of Art in Israel, Canada, 1998, p. 48).