The son of a prosperous German Jewish wool merchant who had settled in Bradford, England, the painter William Rothenstein studied in London and Paris. He was known especially for his portraits of famous men, over two hundred of which are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and for his work as an official war artist in both world wars. At the turn of the century, he produced an important group of paintings of East End immigrant synagogue life, but, aside from his portraits of contemporary Jews (such as that of the graphic designer and lithographer Barnett Freedman), he never returned to Jewish subjects in later decades.
Though Lippy Lipshitz was best known as a sculptor, he produced a small body of paintings, including this watercolor. Its dark palette is similar to that of other pictures he made in the 1940s…
Ḥay ibn Yaqẓān, composed by the Muslim philosopher Abū Bakr ibn Tufayl al-Qaysi (1110–1185), relates the story of Ḥay ibn Yaqẓān, literally “Alive, son of Awake,” as he grows up alone on a deserted…
All that had happened to him lay behind him like a yawning abyss. There was a strange excitement for him in his adjustment, an intoxication beyond fear. His movements were untrammeled, and as a result…