Miniature portrait of a Galician-Jewish man.

Oil on panel. Signed, upper right: "Isidor Kaufmann, Wien".

Miniature portrait of an elderly Galician-Jewish man, depicted with a thin beard, eyeglasses, a top hat, and slightly worn clothing. Cecil (Bezalel) Roth describes Kaufmann as an artist who "made a great career as the chronicler of Galician Jewish types and customs" (Jewish Art, 1961, p. 619). Kaufmann’s oeuvre features numerous figures similar to the subject of the present portrait, particularly in his depictions of daily life scenes of Jewish characters known to him from the Shtetl. These were much requested in the Viennese Market during the 1900s.

Never before at auction.

For Kaufmann's genre paintings featuring similar character types, see: The Chess Players (Die Schachspieler, 1886; Natter, p. 179); The Chess Player (Der Schachspieler; Sotheby's, New York, October 23, 2007, Lot 62); At the Notary (Sotheby's, London, June 21, 1989, Lot 274).

Wood panel: 9X7.6 cm. Original gilt frame: 29X27.5 cm.

Reference:

• G. Tobias Natter, Rabbiner, Bocher, Talmudschüler, Bilder des Wiener Malers, Isidor Kaufmann, 1853-1921, Vienna: 1995.

• Cecil Roth, Jewish Art: an Illustrated History, New York, Toronto and London: McGraw-Hill, 1961.

Provenance:

1. Oscar and Regina Gruss Collection, New York.

2. Heirs of the above.

Certified by the Art Loss Register (ALR); certificate enclosed.

Isidor Kaufmann (1853-1921)

One of the foremost Jewish painters of the 19th century, Isidor Kaufmann was born in Arad, then part of Hungary, and was active in Vienna. Initially working as a clerk, he pursued private studies in painting before enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Kaufmann embarked on extensive journeys through Jewish communities in Poland, Galicia, and Ukraine, capturing the impressions of these encounters in his works. His most significant paintings include portraits of Jewish men and women, Rabbis and Yeshiva students, genre scenes depicting daily life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and evocative renderings of synagogues and study halls, characterized by meticulous detail and a vivid palette.

The Oscar and Regina Gruss Collection

In 1939, Oscar and Regina Gruss fled their hometown of Lvov (then part of Poland, now in Ukraine), narrowly escaping the Holocaust, and eventually settling in the United States. In the years following the war, they devoted themselves to assembling one of the finest collections of Jewish ceremonial art in the USA, with a particular focus on silverwork and 19th-century Jewish paintings.

Their collection featured masterpieces by celebrated artists such as Isidor Kaufmann, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, and Solomon Alexander Hart. Many of these works were generously donated to The Jewish Museum, New York, while others remained within the family. The paintings in this catalogue are being offered at auction for the first time.

For additional items from the collection of Oscar and Regina Gruss in the present catalogue, see lot nos. 133, 144, 147, 153, 154, 204 and 205.

The synagogue at the Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes Tomb in Tiberias.

Watercolor on paper. Signed and dated 1949.

The work is a fine example of Gutman’s watercolors of the 1940s in its composed style and delicate details.

Enclosed is a letter of authenticity from the Nachum Gutman Museum in Tel Aviv, signed by Prof. Menachem Gutman, the artist's son.

Painting: 65X53 cm. Frame: 87X73.5 cm.

Yingl Tsingl Khvat [The Mischievous Boy], by Mani Leib. Illustrations by Eliezer (El) Lissitzky. Warsaw: "Kultur-Lige", 1922. Yiddish. Second edition.

A rhymed tale for children by Yiddish poet Menahem Leib Brahinsky (Mani Leib); accompanied by black-and-white illustrations by El Lissitzky, with a color cover illustration and a title page specially printed for this edition.

The book Yingl Tsingl Khvat was first published in 1919, designed by El Lissitzky, featuring on its front cover an illustration of a child riding a horse, printed in three colors – red, blue, and yellow (this illustration is among Lissitzky's most recognized works).

For the second edition, Lissitzky created an additional illustration, distinct from the other illustrations in the book – a modernist version of the colorful cover illustration –"distilling" the image of the child and horse into just three lines, combined with the text (this illustration served as the title page for the second edition).

The second edition was printed in 1922 in Warsaw in two sizes: a small booklet format (14 cm) and a full-sized book (the same size as the first edition). The present is a copy of the larger version, which is the rarer of the two.

See:

• Christina Lodder, Ideology and Identity: El Lissitzky in Berlin, (in: The Russian Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917-1937. Leiden-Boston: Brill, [ca. 2012], pp. 339–360).

• Alexander Kantsedikas, El Lissitzky, The Jewish Period. London: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2017 (p. 97).

[1], 10, [1] pages, 26 cm. Fair condition (cover in fair-poor condition). Stains. Creases. Front cover detached. Tears and missing pieces along cover edges (mostly minor).

Advertising poster for the film "Professor Mamlock". USA, [1938].

At the center of the poster is an illustration of the film’s most well-known scene – the Jewish doctor, Professor Mamlock, being dragged by two Nazi SA officers, with the word "Jude" (Jew) inscribed on his coat. The margins list the film’s creators: directors Herbert Rappaport and Adolf Minkin, playwright Friedrich Wolf, and the Lenfilm (Ленфильм) Studios in Saint Petersburg.

The film "Professor Mamlock" was produced in the Soviet Union in 1938, based on a play by the Jewish physician Friedrich Wolf, and was among the first cinematic works to portray the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Upon its release, it achieved unprecedented success in Russia, and within the same year was distributed worldwide, screening before millions of viewers. Due to pressure from Nazi Germany, the film was banned in several countries – including Britain, France, and China – but not in the USA, where it was screened in over 100 theaters (its premiere took place on November 7, 1938, two days before the Kristallnacht pogroms in Germany).

The poster was designed by Hugo Gellert (1892-1985), a Jewish-American painter, anti-fascist political artist, and member of the Communist Party in the USA. During World War II, he led the "Artists for Victory" organization – comprising some 10,000 American artists who contributed their skills to the fight against Nazi Germany. Gellert created this poster in preparation for the film’s premiere.

Approx. 100X68 cm. Fair-good condition. Fold marks. Some stains and creases. Tears along margins and fold lines (professionally restored, with minor color touch-ups). Small adhesive tape pieces on verso.