Purim Spiel (Purim Play)

Jankel Adler

1931

Painting of three figures holding objects with horse, Egyptian sphinx and moon in background.
Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Jankel Adler

1895–1949
The painter Yankl (also Jankel) Adler was born in Tuszyn (now in Poland) into a Hasidic family. He studied engraving in Łódź in 1913 and received further training in Germany. He later moved back to Łódź and helped to launch the Yung-yidish cultural movement, championing the themes and stylistic features of German expressionism. In 1920, he moved back to Germany, aligning himself with the left-wing avant-garde. His pictures from the Weimar period include no Jewish references. He lived in France from 1933 to 1940 and then fought with the Polish Free Army before being evacuated to Scotland in 1941. He eventually moved to London. He returned to painting Jewish themes in the 1940s. His work frequently depicts the suffering of European Jewry during the Nazi years.

You may also like

Print of city street with horse-drawn carriages and building facade.
Tooltip info icon

The de Pinto Family House

The de Pinto family were wealthy merchant bankers who lived in Amsterdam from the seventeenth century on. In the Iberian Peninsula, members of the family converted to Christianity at the end of the…
View Source
Silver cup engraved with a person in profile wearing a jester hat drinking out of a barrel.
Tooltip info icon

Silver Purim Cup

On this silver Purim cup from Augsburg, Germany, a quotation from the Talmud (b. Megillah 7b) inscribed around the rim advises its bearer to drink in celebration of Purim until unable to distinguish…
View Source
Scroll manuscript page with Hebrew text in four columns, with illustrations on top of figures seated talking to each other, working by a tree, and walking; the middle sections feature ladders and people working on trees; the bottom features elephants and rhinoceroses.
Tooltip info icon

Scroll of the Book of Esther

This scroll of Esther from Germany, created for use on the holiday of Purim, is extensively decorated, with illustrations of biblical scenes from the Esther story, as well as various flora and fauna…
View Source