Monday, February 04, 2013

Sacrebleu! notice of a Jewish artist from 1844

Here is a fantastic art review (ok, notice) in the Archives israélites de France from 1844 (pg. 346). It concerns an exhibit in the Louvre:









"Regarding art, we have visited the painting exhibition at the Louvre and we noticed the following pieces by our coreligionists: # 818, Goldschmidt 928 the Sybil of Cumae, 929: Simon Hertz Offering to the Virgin (oh!) and a Procession to the Corpus Christi (oh! oh!)."

4 comments:

  1. Whatever, that was the art that sold well... like the fake Steiplers that go for Sukka decorations today maybe.

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  2. Google reveals that "Goldschmidt" was Hermann Goldschmidt (1802-1866), a native of Frankfurt-am-Main, who was not only a respected artist but who took up astronomy in middle age and discovered 14 asteroids.

    I haven't found anything more on Simon Hertz, but I did turn up a comment in the British "Voice of Israel" (August 1, 1844) referring to the art notice in the Archives israélites: "We fully join in Ben Levi's 'oh!'. This sort of liberalism is any thing but gratifying to us."

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    Replies
    1. Hertz was also from Frankfurt, and named (French version) Simon-Georges Herz. Found that in a catalog from the era. Nothing on the man though, unless he is somehow secretly Simon Saint-Jean who also painted one called Offrande à la Vierge, in the same time frame (1842ish).

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  3. Grunk -- what are "fake Steiplers"? Pictures which don't actually represent Rav Y.Y. Kanayevski, but rather someone else (or perhaps nobody real at all)?

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