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Pastel portrait of a Jewish man with a toothy smile

Object | Accession Number: 2016.184.262

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    Pastel portrait of a Jewish man with a toothy smile

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Austrian pastel drawing of a smiling, Orthodox Jewish man dressed in black, created in approximately 1880. Orthodox Judaism is the most traditional and stringent of the three main branches of modern Judaism. Orthodox Jews believe the Torah is of divine origin and strive to adhere to the 613 commandments of Jewish Law. Orthodox Jewish men traditionally wear a black top with a black, brimmed hat, as seen in the drawing. The black clothing conforms to the Jewish concept of tzniyus (modest dress and behavior), which Orthodox Jews adhere to for religious reasons. Only men can wear the brimmed hats. Jewish boys receive their first hat following their bar mitzvah, when they are ready to observe religious laws and are eligible to take part in public worship. The man has several stereotypical physical features commonly attributed to Jewish men: a large nose, sidelocks, and a red beard. The man’s unappealing grin, coupled with the unkempt appearance of his wiry facial hair, gives him a disquieting air. The depiction of Jewish characters as redheads also has a long history. Some interpretations of the Bible describe Esau and David (King of Israel) as being redheaded, and for many red hair became a Jewish identifier, even though Jews are genetically no more likely to have red hair than other groups. In medieval Europe, redheads were regarded as untrustworthy, and the Jewish, literary villains Fagin and Shylock had red hair. The pastel drawing is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
    Date
    creation:  approximately 1880
    Geography
    creation: Austria
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
    Contributor
    Compiler: Peter Ehrenthal
    Biography
    The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.

    Physical Details

    Language
    French
    Classification
    Art
    Category
    Drawings
    Physical Description
    Drawing in pastel on brown paper of a naturalistic portrait of an older Jewish man in three quarters view, from the midchest up. He stares directly outward, with evident interest and a glint in his wide brown left eye. The rightward turn of his head puts his right eye in shadow. He has a large, lumpy nose and his mouth is open, showing 2 uneven, widely spaced teeth, in an unpleasant grin that wrinkles his forehead and flushed, red cheeks. He has red curly sidelocks, beard, and unkempt mustache.He wears a soft brimmed brown hat and black/blue coat. His shaded left nose and cheek are outlined in green. The background is blended gray/blue. There is colored over French text embossed along the bottom front of the paper, possibly a watermark, and a pinhole in the upper right corner.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 7.750 inches (19.685 cm) | Width: 6.000 inches (15.24 cm)
    Materials
    overall : paper, pastels
    Inscription
    back, stamped, black ink : [shield enclosing winged finial atop caduceus over an anchor next to a F] / MARQUE DE FABRIK [brand mark]

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    Europe.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The pastel drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Special Collection
    Katz Ehrenthal Collection
    Record last modified:
    2022-07-28 18:12:44
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn538891

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