Boris Schatz And His Jewish Contemporaries
Written By: Harold Debrest
The mother of “Ben Hur” in the famous novel of that name asserts truthfully that in the sense which limits art to sculpture, “Israel has had no artists.” Continuing the argument, she heroically explains this by quoting from the Law of Moses, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” We shall not argue whether this is why Jerusalem at its highest glory never boasted of a “Raphael,” though it had Solomon and Davids a plenty, scribes, and patriots by the score, and prophets, poets, and singers the like of whom the world may never see. However that may be, it sounds logical that the zealous Israelites should have observed the law to the letter in this, as they did and the majority of them to this very day, in many other things. One thing is certain that this law has been modified; Israel as a race is now more than represented in all of the arts, including sculpture and painting. A world’s exhibition of art would be today an impossibility without the works of Jewish artists. The deplorable fact is that so frequently are these artists non-distinguishable as Jews, for the Jew, alas, has had no exhibition of his own since the last two thousand years, that is as the laurel winner of the Germans, Austrian, English, Dutch and even ungrateful Russia. Time will be and, it is approaching rapidly, when the world’s fair of the future will find it necessary to provide a Jewish section where the Jew will compete in this friendly and enlightened combat with other nations as a Jew. This to his own credit as well as to that of the whole civilized world. These are the thoughts “dreams of the immediate present, but realities of the future,” that kept surging into my head as I wandered from hall to hall in the Fine Art section of the World’s Fair, viewing the accomplishments of nations proudly exhibiting their arts, the fruits of civilization.
I observed arduously the faces of the attaches, officials in charge of their respective sections as they watched the spectators’ admiration for some painting, or piece of sculpture which contains the imprint of genius. There was a glowing mixture of pride and pleasure visible in their countenances when they were called upon to explain some of the many details concerning the history or interpretation of this or that masterpieces. An expression of countenance that seemed to say, “and this is a child of Austria or Bulgaria.” Especially was this true of Russia which at the present time is quite anxious to make a favorable impression upon America and the world in general.
Who would think upon entering the Russian section of Fine Arts, that this country was the scene of such fiendish ravages, in which the government was proven to be implicated, if not instrumental, over a year ago, that its soil is saturated with the blood of thousands of martyrs. And yet what a mockery, it would be humorous, were it not so tragic. Think of it, the Russian Commission to the World’s Fair, which undertook to vindicate her name before the civilized world, by exhibiting her genius there, two out of three were Jews. And the artists from the massive statue of “Tolstoy” which confronted the visitor immediately upon entering, to the several hundred of paintings which rank amongst the foremost at the exposition were prominently works of Jews. Ginzberg, a Jew, the sculptor of Tolstoy, is occupying the place left vacant by the late Antokolsky also a Jew, and Bernstein is his cleverest competitor. The painters are Markofsky, Repin, Bagin, Maismon, Bucholtz, Sechenberg, Therkofsky, Feldman, Goldinger, Platschek and Schulman all of them Jews. Germany found it appropriate to exhibit the works of her earlier painters only, at this exposition taken from a period when the Jewish artists in Germany were as rare as they are today frequent. Therefore the works of Lieberman and Oppenheim, Lillien and all others of the new school, Christians and Jews were conspicuously missing. The average of Jewish painters was larger in proportion than it would have appeared. Louis Feldman, Feuerbach, Jacobs, Marcus, Marx Myerkeim, Spire, Auger, Vogel and Jacoby were the Jewish artists whose works were conspicuously present. Great Britian’s Art Commission contained two Jews, Ricardo and Isidor Spielman the international art critic; and its exhibition comprised the works of Solomon J. Solomon, Rothenstein, Lucas Elias, etc. There were also portraits of noted Jewish personages which included that of L. Levy Esq. a merchant prince and philanthropist of London. Space will not permit me to deal in detail with all the artists from the various countries of the Jewish race, which fact I regret. I shall therefore name only such instances as are especially noteworthy, and will be read with surprise by many non-Jews and some Jews, alas, who have become accustomed to associate the Jew with business ability, and financiering and nothing else. The centre of attraction in the Holland section was a Jew, the greatest painter in that country and his name is Josef Israels, and his closest competitor was Jacob Maris, also a Jew. But Holland was not alone in this distinction, for Austria Hungary’s achievements were centered in Munchey, a child of the despised race. France boasted of Rosa Bonheur, the greatest woman painter that ever lived and the recently deceased Bartholdi of the “Statue of Liberty” fame in sculpture, both of whom were Jews according to the testimony of Boris Schatz, the man subject of this sketch, who knew them both intimately, and whose statement I have every reason to believe.
Belgium was equally conspicuous, her foremost representative in the arts was Samuel, a Jew. The United States was especially rich with Jewish artists, and for the reason before mentioned. I will only name the most conspicuous, Louis Loeb, Henry Moses, Ben Austrian, and Marks Rosenthal in painting, and Ezekiel, Kath, M. Cohen, Lopez, Ney and Pfeifer in sculpture. It is interesting to note that Henry Wolf was the laurel winner in wood engraving. The United States section was filled with portraits of distinguished personages, but none more prominent than that of Professor Henry M. Liepzieger painted by an East Side artist who has attracted considerable notice. There was also a portrait of Joseph Israel the Dutch Master in the American section. There is still one other country which one would hardly expect to find mentioned for its distinction in art, on account of its youth, for it is hardly a life time since it has gained its independence, Bulgaria. Indeed, were it not for one name, one sculptor whom Bulgaria has sheltered for the past nine years, it would have had no art exhibition to boast of, for its achievements in that Line, the efforts of so short a time were made doubly conspicuous through this one illustrious genius, Boris Schatz.
Who is Boris Schatz? In the art centers of Europe, the name has already become familiar as the recipient of many decorations, gold medals and “Officier יde 1’ Academie de France.’ In America we had still to become acquainted with him, and the World’s Fair of St. Louis gave us the opportunity, for he came in the name of his government, Bulgaria, at the special request of the Prince who did him the unprecedented honor of calling at his studio and presenting him the invitation in person according to the Bulgarian newspapers. From his visiting card we learn that he is professor of art and sculpture at the University of Sofia. It might interest your readers to get a personal view of the man as an artist and a Jew. In this brief period while he was in this country to meet and enjoy the intimate friendship of the artist, during which as usually the case under the circumstances mentioned, when two people become interested in each other personally, he revealed himself to me in his true self, not as the illustrious sculptor, the friend of princes, and the pride of royalty, but plain Boris Schatz, the hounded Russian Jew, the dreamer of his people’s loftiest dreams—Zionism, for be it remembered that to himself, his Zionism or his Judaism as he calls it, is even more important than his art, for he only uses the latter to propagate the former, “to awaken his people” as he terms it.
A glimpse of the most successful works of this great sculptor will indicate fairly his predominating purpose. They are a series of Jewish types as we see them in the Ghetto, or as Schatz saw them in his youth. “Birchas Harao,” “The Schadschen,” “The Mother of Moses,” “Dei Schlafenden Jude,” “Havdalah,” all three are some of the series of sketches in bronze or wood in which the Jew is made to live and breathe. “Es Ochi Onochi Mevakash” with these words he greeted me when I first met him, and I soon realized that Schatz was no idle dreamer of the Jewish race, but an actor, a patriot, one who loved the ancient language of his people. In Bulgaria where he lives he is the president of the Zionist societies which he created, and founder of a school, a Talmud Torah for children, where aside from Jewish history, foreign languages, the trades and the arts are taught. His ambition, for he is only 38 years old, is to go to Palestine and there establish a similar school or chain of schools in order to prepare the Jewish youth to become industrious citizens of the Jewish republic, the existence of which in the near future there is no doubt about. Indeed, if every Jew or one half of them went to work about it in the same manner, not even the radical pessimist would doubt the possibility.
His life, his boyhood, as might be expected, was full of romantic incidents, obstacles that turned into opportunities, the peculiar route of genius.
Boris Schatz was born in a small town of Kovno, Russia, in 1866, and his father was a poor “Melamed.”. As he grew into manhood his artistic talent made itself manifest, for there was hardly a bench or table in his father’s house that was left uncovered, much to the distress of his parents and poor young Boris who risked the punishment that he was sure to get. Under these conditions the young sculptor lived, studying under the guidance of his father for the ministry, but yearning secretly for a different career, one which nature had prepared for him.
Little things that he had carved from wood soon attracted the attention of a distinguished government officer, a Christian, who offered to send him to an art school in Vilna. The protests of his parents were of no avail, and young Schatz soon ,went there as an honor student and graduated thence in two years. From there he went to Warsaw and finally to Paris, where he aroused the interest of the late Antokolsky, who became his teacher and afterwards his most intimate friend. Boris Schatz lived in the house of Antokolsky until 1896. There he produced his masterpiece “Matthias,” representing in bronze the Jewish patriot and the High Priest heading the attack on the enemy with his five sons resulting in the Maccabaean victory. This statue was purchased by the Prince of Bulgaria. “The Mother of Moses” was also produced at this time and these two masterpieces were enough to spread the name of Schatz all over Europe.
Far greater than these two, than anything that he has ever accomplished, is his "Havdalah.” One has to see it in order to appreciate it, and even then he will never be able to describe it. I might say that it is his best, if he had not told me that his best is yet to come, but I cannot imagine anything being more perfect from an artistic standpoint, though it is purely as a spiritual interpretation that I became interested in it. It is an inspiration, as are the Psalms, or a musical sonata. The uplifted face of the old ghetto Jew, stamped with pride and suffering, the one in spite of the other, raising to his lips the cup “Kos Jeshuos Osi” with the red sparkling wine as he bids adieu to the day of rest and welcomes the week of toil and suffering, humiliation and persecution, all this without a sigh of fear rather with that of resolution and of faith. The classic face, the flowing beard, the high forehead, the half shut eyes. It was only after I awoke that I realized that I was standing in front of a piece of metal. Before this time, I saw the Jew with his historic past, his conquests and his glories, thrust into mediaeval persecutions in the grasp of which he is still riding heroically and faithfully, —all this was as visible as daylight. If Schatz had done nothing more, he would deserve to rank with the poets and prophets of Israel, for he speaks to his people through his works more loudly than if he were using mere words. Schatz is still with us, and he tells us that his work has barely begun. Let us hope that this is so, also that his ambitions will be realized that the World’s Fair of the future will have its Jewish section. While we are proud of him as an artist let us remember him as a Zionist; it will please him more. Let me his own words again quote: “I am prouder of having made the bust of Theodore Herzl in the only sitting which that great leader ever gave to an artist, than I would be of being similarly favored by an ancient or modern autocrat.” The bust he refers to was on exhibition at the St. Louis Fair.
The Jewish Home Journal
April, 1905
Boris Schatz And His Jewish Contemporaries
Written By: Harold Debrest
The mother of “Ben Hur” in the famous novel of that name asserts truthfully that in the sense which limits art to sculpture, “Israel has had no artists.” Continuing the argument, she heroically explains this by quoting from the Law of Moses, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” We shall not argue whether this is why Jerusalem at its highest glory never boasted of a “Raphael,” though it had Solomon and Davids a plenty, scribes, and patriots by the score, and prophets, poets, and singers the like of whom the world may never see. However that may be, it sounds logical that the zealous Israelites should have observed the law to the letter in this, as they did and the majority of them to this very day, in many other things. One thing is certain that this law has been modified; Israel as a race is now more than represented in all of the arts, including sculpture and painting. A world’s exhibition of art would be today an impossibility without the works of Jewish artists. The deplorable fact is that so frequently are these artists non-distinguishable as Jews, for the Jew, alas, has had no exhibition of his own since the last two thousand years, that is as the laurel winner of the Germans, Austrian, English, Dutch and even ungrateful Russia. Time will be and, it is approaching rapidly, when the world’s fair of the future will find it necessary to provide a Jewish section where the Jew will compete in this friendly and enlightened combat with other nations as a Jew. This to his own credit as well as to that of the whole civilized world. These are the thoughts “dreams of the immediate present, but realities of the future,” that kept surging into my head as I wandered from hall to hall in the Fine Art section of the World’s Fair, viewing the accomplishments of nations proudly exhibiting their arts, the fruits of civilization.
I observed arduously the faces of the attaches, officials in charge of their respective sections as they watched the spectators’ admiration for some painting, or piece of sculpture which contains the imprint of genius. There was a glowing mixture of pride and pleasure visible in their countenances when they were called upon to explain some of the many details concerning the history or interpretation of this or that masterpieces. An expression of countenance that seemed to say, “and this is a child of Austria or Bulgaria.” Especially was this true of Russia which at the present time is quite anxious to make a favorable impression upon America and the world in general.
Who would think upon entering the Russian section of Fine Arts, that this country was the scene of such fiendish ravages, in which the government was proven to be implicated, if not instrumental, over a year ago, that its soil is saturated with the blood of thousands of martyrs. And yet what a mockery, it would be humorous, were it not so tragic. Think of it, the Russian Commission to the World’s Fair, which undertook to vindicate her name before the civilized world, by exhibiting her genius there, two out of three were Jews. And the artists from the massive statue of “Tolstoy” which confronted the visitor immediately upon entering, to the several hundred of paintings which rank amongst the foremost at the exposition were prominently works of Jews. Ginzberg, a Jew, the sculptor of Tolstoy, is occupying the place left vacant by the late Antokolsky also a Jew, and Bernstein is his cleverest competitor. The painters are Markofsky, Repin, Bagin, Maismon, Bucholtz, Sechenberg, Therkofsky, Feldman, Goldinger, Platschek and Schulman all of them Jews. Germany found it appropriate to exhibit the works of her earlier painters only, at this exposition taken from a period when the Jewish artists in Germany were as rare as they are today frequent. Therefore the works of Lieberman and Oppenheim, Lillien and all others of the new school, Christians and Jews were conspicuously missing. The average of Jewish painters was larger in proportion than it would have appeared. Louis Feldman, Feuerbach, Jacobs, Marcus, Marx Myerkeim, Spire, Auger, Vogel and Jacoby were the Jewish artists whose works were conspicuously present. Great Britian’s Art Commission contained two Jews, Ricardo and Isidor Spielman the international art critic; and its exhibition comprised the works of Solomon J. Solomon, Rothenstein, Lucas Elias, etc. There were also portraits of noted Jewish personages which included that of L. Levy Esq. a merchant prince and philanthropist of London. Space will not permit me to deal in detail with all the artists from the various countries of the Jewish race, which fact I regret. I shall therefore name only such instances as are especially noteworthy, and will be read with surprise by many non-Jews and some Jews, alas, who have become accustomed to associate the Jew with business ability, and financiering and nothing else. The centre of attraction in the Holland section was a Jew, the greatest painter in that country and his name is Josef Israels, and his closest competitor was Jacob Maris, also a Jew. But Holland was not alone in this distinction, for Austria Hungary’s achievements were centered in Munchey, a child of the despised race. France boasted of Rosa Bonheur, the greatest woman painter that ever lived and the recently deceased Bartholdi of the “Statue of Liberty” fame in sculpture, both of whom were Jews according to the testimony of Boris Schatz, the man subject of this sketch, who knew them both intimately, and whose statement I have every reason to believe.
Belgium was equally conspicuous, her foremost representative in the arts was Samuel, a Jew. The United States was especially rich with Jewish artists, and for the reason before mentioned. I will only name the most conspicuous, Louis Loeb, Henry Moses, Ben Austrian, and Marks Rosenthal in painting, and Ezekiel, Kath, M. Cohen, Lopez, Ney and Pfeifer in sculpture. It is interesting to note that Henry Wolf was the laurel winner in wood engraving. The United States section was filled with portraits of distinguished personages, but none more prominent than that of Professor Henry M. Liepzieger painted by an East Side artist who has attracted considerable notice. There was also a portrait of Joseph Israel the Dutch Master in the American section. There is still one other country which one would hardly expect to find mentioned for its distinction in art, on account of its youth, for it is hardly a life time since it has gained its independence, Bulgaria. Indeed, were it not for one name, one sculptor whom Bulgaria has sheltered for the past nine years, it would have had no art exhibition to boast of, for its achievements in that Line, the efforts of so short a time were made doubly conspicuous through this one illustrious genius, Boris Schatz.
Who is Boris Schatz? In the art centers of Europe, the name has already become familiar as the recipient of many decorations, gold medals and “Officier יde 1’ Academie de France.’ In America we had still to become acquainted with him, and the World’s Fair of St. Louis gave us the opportunity, for he came in the name of his government, Bulgaria, at the special request of the Prince who did him the unprecedented honor of calling at his studio and presenting him the invitation in person according to the Bulgarian newspapers. From his visiting card we learn that he is professor of art and sculpture at the University of Sofia. It might interest your readers to get a personal view of the man as an artist and a Jew. In this brief period while he was in this country to meet and enjoy the intimate friendship of the artist, during which as usually the case under the circumstances mentioned, when two people become interested in each other personally, he revealed himself to me in his true self, not as the illustrious sculptor, the friend of princes, and the pride of royalty, but plain Boris Schatz, the hounded Russian Jew, the dreamer of his people’s loftiest dreams—Zionism, for be it remembered that to himself, his Zionism or his Judaism as he calls it, is even more important than his art, for he only uses the latter to propagate the former, “to awaken his people” as he terms it.
A glimpse of the most successful works of this great sculptor will indicate fairly his predominating purpose. They are a series of Jewish types as we see them in the Ghetto, or as Schatz saw them in his youth. “Birchas Harao,” “The Schadschen,” “The Mother of Moses,” “Dei Schlafenden Jude,” “Havdalah,” all three are some of the series of sketches in bronze or wood in which the Jew is made to live and breathe. “Es Ochi Onochi Mevakash” with these words he greeted me when I first met him, and I soon realized that Schatz was no idle dreamer of the Jewish race, but an actor, a patriot, one who loved the ancient language of his people. In Bulgaria where he lives he is the president of the Zionist societies which he created, and founder of a school, a Talmud Torah for children, where aside from Jewish history, foreign languages, the trades and the arts are taught. His ambition, for he is only 38 years old, is to go to Palestine and there establish a similar school or chain of schools in order to prepare the Jewish youth to become industrious citizens of the Jewish republic, the existence of which in the near future there is no doubt about. Indeed, if every Jew or one half of them went to work about it in the same manner, not even the radical pessimist would doubt the possibility.
His life, his boyhood, as might be expected, was full of romantic incidents, obstacles that turned into opportunities, the peculiar route of genius.
Boris Schatz was born in a small town of Kovno, Russia, in 1866, and his father was a poor “Melamed.”. As he grew into manhood his artistic talent made itself manifest, for there was hardly a bench or table in his father’s house that was left uncovered, much to the distress of his parents and poor young Boris who risked the punishment that he was sure to get. Under these conditions the young sculptor lived, studying under the guidance of his father for the ministry, but yearning secretly for a different career, one which nature had prepared for him.
Little things that he had carved from wood soon attracted the attention of a distinguished government officer, a Christian, who offered to send him to an art school in Vilna. The protests of his parents were of no avail, and young Schatz soon ,went there as an honor student and graduated thence in two years. From there he went to Warsaw and finally to Paris, where he aroused the interest of the late Antokolsky, who became his teacher and afterwards his most intimate friend. Boris Schatz lived in the house of Antokolsky until 1896. There he produced his masterpiece “Matthias,” representing in bronze the Jewish patriot and the High Priest heading the attack on the enemy with his five sons resulting in the Maccabaean victory. This statue was purchased by the Prince of Bulgaria. “The Mother of Moses” was also produced at this time and these two masterpieces were enough to spread the name of Schatz all over Europe.
Far greater than these two, than anything that he has ever accomplished, is his "Havdalah.” One has to see it in order to appreciate it, and even then he will never be able to describe it. I might say that it is his best, if he had not told me that his best is yet to come, but I cannot imagine anything being more perfect from an artistic standpoint, though it is purely as a spiritual interpretation that I became interested in it. It is an inspiration, as are the Psalms, or a musical sonata. The uplifted face of the old ghetto Jew, stamped with pride and suffering, the one in spite of the other, raising to his lips the cup “Kos Jeshuos Osi” with the red sparkling wine as he bids adieu to the day of rest and welcomes the week of toil and suffering, humiliation and persecution, all this without a sigh of fear rather with that of resolution and of faith. The classic face, the flowing beard, the high forehead, the half shut eyes. It was only after I awoke that I realized that I was standing in front of a piece of metal. Before this time, I saw the Jew with his historic past, his conquests and his glories, thrust into mediaeval persecutions in the grasp of which he is still riding heroically and faithfully, —all this was as visible as daylight. If Schatz had done nothing more, he would deserve to rank with the poets and prophets of Israel, for he speaks to his people through his works more loudly than if he were using mere words. Schatz is still with us, and he tells us that his work has barely begun. Let us hope that this is so, also that his ambitions will be realized that the World’s Fair of the future will have its Jewish section. While we are proud of him as an artist let us remember him as a Zionist; it will please him more. Let me his own words again quote: “I am prouder of having made the bust of Theodore Herzl in the only sitting which that great leader ever gave to an artist, than I would be of being similarly favored by an ancient or modern autocrat.” The bust he refers to was on exhibition at the St. Louis Fair.
The Jewish Home Journal
April, 1905