Auction 102 Part 1 Hebrew Manuscripts and Books from the Victor (Avigdor) Klagsbald Collection
Portrait of a French rabbi.
Oil on panel. Signed.
A seated rabbi gazing forward, holding a book in his lap, dressed in the characteristic attire of French rabbis – wearing a large round skull cap, a long black coat and a wide white tie.
This painting may have served as a preparatory study for one of Édouard Moyse's genre paintings featuring rabbinic figures, possibly even his well-known work Le Grand Sanhédrin (1867), which depicts the Sanhedrin of Paris convened by order of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Two similar works by Moyse are known: a portrait in the collection of the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris (mahJ), item no. 2006.50.001, and another portrait offered for auction at Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, March 23, 2011, Lot 25.
Panel: 21.5X22 cm. Frame: 31X32 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes.
Portrait of a young Hasidic Jew.
Oil on canvas. Signed with initials P.B.
A smiling Hasidic Jew wearing a shtreimel, resembling the pointed cap traditionally worn by descendants of the Ruzhin dynasty ("shpitziger shtreimel"). The painter's initials, "P.B.", appear on the left.
Painting: 35X25 cm. Frame: 47.5X36.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Blemishes.
Printed sheet, an amulet for the protection of the mother of a newborn girl and of the newborn. [Sulzbach? Germany, ca. 18th century].
Printed amulet depicting the encounter between the prophet Elijah and Lilith. At the top, an illustration shows a woman lighting a hanging Sabbath lamp (Judenstern). On the right and left margins appear the figures of Adam and Eve, each standing on a balcony under a canopy. The text, under the heading "LiNekevah" (for a Female), is written in German using Hebrew Tz'enah Ur'enah type. At the bottom, the inscription of the three mitzvot for women: Niddah, Challah, Hadlakat HaNer.
[1] leaf. Height: approx. 18 cm, width: approx. 22 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears, including small open tears, affecting illustrations. Creases and folding marks.
A corresponding sheet was printed concurrently, identical in form and content but with the heading "LeZachar" (for a Male).
See: Jewish Tradition in Art – The Feuchtwanger Collection of Judaica, by Dr. Isaiah Shachar (Israel Museum, 1981), no. 3.