Religious Art & Worldviews · Artists
Called the first Jewish painter of the modern era: his Scenes from Traditional Jewish Family Life gave emancipated German Jewry its self-portrait.
Tagged: Painting Modern Devotional Iconic Jewish Genre Painting Jewish
Oppenheim painted for the Rothschilds and for the Jewish middle class that was entering German society while keeping the Sabbath table at home. His genre scenes — the Friday night blessing, the examination of the schoolboy — are deliberately unheroic: tradition as domestic dignity.
The pictured Sabbath Rest belongs to that series, which circulated as prints through Jewish homes across Europe and America.
References
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