Lot 265: ISAAC SNOWMAN B. 1874

signed, inscribed and dated u.r.: I. SNOWMAN/ JERUSALEM/ 1923

oil on canvas

49.5 by 60 cm. ; 19 1/2 by 23 3/4 in.

Isaac Snowman was born in Palestine in1874, but had moved to London by 1893 when he exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy, entitled Tales of a Grandfather when he was living on the Euston Road. Two years later, he had diversified and begun to paint sophisticated portraiture and moved northwards to St John's Wood, the most fashionable area for artists in the late nineteenth century. A move again in 1898, saw him residing and setting up a studio on Fortune Green Road in West Hampstead, an affluent enclave for the Jewish community of London, where he remained for ten years.

Snowman's themes varied from still-lives to classical drama, portraiture to modern genre, which proved his adaptability and willingness to attempt large scale works. His paintings of Jewish life, often painted in Israel like the present picture, demonstrate his close links to his homeland. He continued to travel well into the twentieth century, visiting Jerusalem in 1922, where the inspiration of the local people and architecture still excited his interest. Three Rabbis of Jerusalem may have been painted from sketches made in 1922 or Snowman may have returned to Jerusalem a year later.