Tina Blau was the daughter of a Viennese physician who enthusiastically supported her artistic development through education and travel. Like many women artists of the period, Blau was not permitted to attend a formal art academy and therefore studied privately. After traveling in Europe and living in an artist colony in Hungary, Blau returned to Vienna, where she shared a studio with the landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler. Although their relationship was often characterized as one of pupil and teacher, the two were in fact colleagues. Blau moved to Munich in 1883 and married the painter Heinrich Lang, following her conversion to Protestantism. In Munich, she taught still life and landscape painting at the Münchner Künstlerinnenverein, a fine arts academy exclusively for women. After her husband’s death, Blau returned to Vienna.
Jewish Street in Amsterdam is one of the many landscapes that Tina Blau painted in her career. It is painted in the style of Austrian Stimmungsimpressionismus (atmospheric impressionism), which was…
These small Torah finials, decorated with silver repoussé and dark and light blue enamel, originated in Persia. They are further adorned with slender flowers and graceful geometric patterns.
This silver Torah pointer from Poland is inscribed in Hebrew: “The hand [i.e., pointer] of Joseph Halevi, crowned with success, donated in the name of his son Abraham on the eve of R[osh] H[ashanah]…