Arts 114 Entertainment

JEWISH CONNECTIONS

from page 75

as "orphan men," who were basically living
in a city-funded almshouse at the Hague
Special to the Jewish News
and are seen in Face to Face. Their weathered
— visages show a parallel to Israels' images.
ne striking image, one painterly
"Israels was one of the leading painters of
an friend,
influence, one tutor and
his generation in the Dutch Republic and
one neighborhood and more than
was very much associated with the 19th-
one dealer represent known Jewish
century French realist painting of the
connections to 19th-century painter Vincent
Barbizon School," curator Keyes explains.
van Gogh, whose powerful portraits will be
"The Barbizon painters extolled the
exhibited Sunday, March 12-June 4 at the
virtues
of peasant life, thinking that the rela-
Detroit Institute of Arts.
tionship of the peasant to the land was a self-
Featuring 67 works from an international
evident, eternal truth, and Israels very much
array of public and private collections,
adopted the subject matter. He also repre-
including pieces owned by the DIA, Van
sented scenes that encompassed the scale of
Gogh: Face to Face becomes the first display
human tragedy seen in the context of What it
of this master's talent for capturing the bold
was like to be living the life of a peasant.
and subtle expressiveness of the face.
"There are strongly emotional scenes —
The exhibit, a collaboration with the
for
example, the death of a young mother or
Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the
the death of a beloved husband or the death
Philadelphia Museum of Art, has been
of a sailor at sea. These were all subjects he
curated by specialists in 19th-century
popularized, and van Gogh, because of his
European and Dutch painting: George
strong sense of moral probity, was driven by
Keyes in Detroit, George T.M. Shackelford
a very strong evangelical streak and found
in Boston and Joseph Rishel in Philadelphia.
those pictures tremendously appealing.
"What fascinates me much, much more
"When van Gogh was in the small vil-
than does anything else in my metier is the
lage
of Nuenen, he did paint an enormous
portrait, the modern portrait," van Gogh
number
of peasant subjects, and in repre-
has written. "I should like to do portraits
senting these, he clearly was very deeply
which will appear as revelations to people in
influenced by Jozef Israels.
100 years' time."
"Israels relied heavily on earth tones, so that
One such revelation, more than 100 years
the whole palette is very subdued with a
later, is Portrait of the Bookseller, Blok, which
Above: This amous portrait, "Doctor Gachet," had a number of Jewish
hushed, meditative and.melancholy quality.
seems to be the artist's only work in this exhib-
:
Jewish
artist
Jozef
Israels
was
much
admired
by
van
owners.
Be
Stylistically,
when van Gogh was in Holland,
it known to.show a member of the Jewish
y.
wanted
Israels'
"Old
Friends"
to
grace
his
ideal
art
galle
Gogh,
who
he
also
painted
in these very subdued earth
community, in this case from the Hague.
tones.
Done in pencil, pen, Chinese ink and
"Van Gogh ranked Israels extremely
watercolor, the 1882 rendering is on loan
highly in terms of the artists he particularly
from a private collection in the Netherlands.
admired. There's a wonderful letter where
Although van Gogh did many works
he talks about the ideal gallery, and at [one]
without identifying the subjects, it is known
end it would have a large painting by Jozef
that Blok is Jewish because of a letter writ-
Israels. The painting, Old Friends, is now in
ten by the artist and presented on the van
the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It presents
Gogh Web site (brooksda@interlog.com )
a very ancient peasant seated at a table with
maintained by David Brooks, a van Gogh
a dog (staying close)."
enthusiast living in Canada. Brooks quotes
In more generic, academic terms, van
the artist:
Gogh was influenced by his tutor, Dr. M.B.
"And what's more, I have obtained yet
Mendes da Costa, a Jewish teacher in
another ornament for my studio. I got an
Amsterdam.
amazing bargain of splendid woodcuts from
"Vincent devoted himself to studying (in
The Graphic, in part printed ... from the
anticipation
of entering the clergy) from
blocks themselves. Just what I've been look-
1877
to
1878,
and many of his studies were
ing for for years.
-
with Mendes da Costa, who taught van
"Drawings by Herkomer, Frank Holl,
Gogh Latin and algebra among other sub-
Walker and others. I bought them from
jects," says Brooks, whose Web site provides
Blok the Jewish bookseller, and for five
how this Jewish person is depicted — positively or
van Gogh letters describing the tutor and offers a
guilders picked the best from an enormous pile Of
negatively," says Dellheim, who next year will be a
picture of the man.
Graphics and London News."
fellow at the Center for Judaic Studies at the
"Though they became good friends, van Gogh .
Without more than this sparse reference to his
University of Pennsylvania.
found
the studies to be too difficult (the Latin in
subject, van Gogh's attitude toward the man — and
"Is he depicted with a large nose or very fleshy
particular),
and he eventually ended them."
Jews in general — could be ascertained by looking
lips or ears that point out? Those are some of the
closely at the portrait itself.
giveaways of antisemitic caricature."
Charles Dellheim, director of the humanities pro-
A group of portraits in the collection, including
Drawn To Jewish Quarters
gram at Arizona State University and an upcoming
Beardless Fisherman Wearing a Sou'wester and
In the 1880s, as van Gogh did portraits in the
DIA speaker on Jewish art dealers as champions of
Fisherman with a Sou'wester, are not known as por-
Hague, he was drawn to the areas where Jews pre-
modernism, suggests some questions for viewers of
traying Jewish subjects, but are the results of Van
dominantly
lived and worked.
the now famous bookseller.
Gogh's esteem for Jewish painter Jozef Israels.
"There's no question that the quarters of the
"The interesting question would have to do with
Van Gogh did paintings with subjects referred to

SUZANNE CHESSLER

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3/10
2000

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