Lot 319: Shmuel Ben David (Betzalel) Preparatory sketch for Passover Haggadah - three colored sketches from the beginning of Betzalel. Original colored sketch

The sketches were intended to illustrate and design a Haggadah for passover that seems to have never come to There is no known Haggadah that Shmuel Ben David illustrated in the Israel national library. The sketches are illustrated water colors and signed by the artist ( two of which are signed in English and in Hebrew General conditions are very good. signs of ageing. some small oxidation to the paper dimensions 20*30 Shabat Menachem Davidov (later Shmuel Ben David) studied under Boris Schatz at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. In 1906, he immigrated to Palestine and enrolled at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts established by Schatz in Jerusalem. Ben David was the first Bezalel student to become a teacher there. He taught in the Tapestry Department and devoted much of his artistic endeavor to research and design of Hebrew typography; his preoccupation with the Hebrew alphabet brought forth an extensive lexicon of ornamentation. In 1912, the artist traveled to Paris and continued his art studies at the Academie Julian and left a collection of sketch books In 1920 Ben David was one of the founders of the Agudat Omanim Ivrit (Association of Hebrew Artists). He organized the Association’s first exhibition and was its first chairman. Around 1923 Ben David produced a unique copy of an illuminated Scroll of Esther, made of parchment. Ben David died in Jerusalem in 1927 and was buried in the Mount of Olives Cemetery.