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BU We Were There Too Life in Pictures Final with Image List 240816 www.jewsfww.london ! Life in Pictures: Understanding Jewish London and its Impact on British Art in the early years of the 20th century The year 1890 was important for London. The world’s first electric tube railway was opened, now part of London’s Northern Line. Amongst many other events it was also around 1890 that a group of Jewish children were born, who became important artists. They had a large and long lasting impact on British art in the Twentieth Century and each have interesting stories. This introduction and related pen portraits will let us explore these stories through their art and the world in which they grew up. The artists’ world was the Jewish East End of London, where many immigrants had settled as refugees from persecution in Russia and eastern Europe. This hatred was prompted by intolerance of the Jewish religion and customs and as today, those who look different or dress differently with different customs are an easy target. In Britain, they enjoyed the freedom to continue to continue their lives and in many cases dressed differently to most Londoners and spoke a language called Yiddish to each other alongside learning English. Like the vast majority of migrants to Britain they worked hard to create a world where they contributed to their and the society that welcomed them and created an environment where their children could succeed. ‘Sabbath Afternoon’ (c.1909-10) by Alfred A. Wolmark (1877-1961) Oil on canvas 1 www.jewsfww.london ! These children included David Bomberg and Isaac Rosenberg, who were both born in 1890. Their friend Mark Gertler was born in 1891, as was Bernard Meninsky. Clare Winsten (originally Clara Birnberg) and Jacob Kramer were both born in 1892. They were all Jewish, most lived in London and they all went to the same Art School – the Slade School of Fine Art in London. They shared a common background and a love of art, but there were differences in how they came to London, which can help us understand more about them. ‘Rabbi and Rabbitzin’ (1914) by Mark Gertler (1891-1939) Watercolour and pencil on paper 2 www.jewsfww.london ! Mark Gertler was born in London’s East End and his parents were Jewish immigrants from Austria. He grew up within a distinctive Jewish community, most of whom were migrants or children of migrants. David Bomberg was born in Birmingham of Polish-Jewish parents and Isaac Rosenberg was born in Bristol, his parents being Lithuanian Jews. Both sets of parents soon moved their families to London for work and settled in the Jewish East End. As Mark, David and Isaac were born in England, they were called second generation migrants. ‘Portrait of a Girl (Sophie, the artist’s sister) (c.1908–11) by Mark Gertler (1891-1939) Oil on canvas Clare Winsten, Bernard Meninsky and Jacob Kramer were child migrants, as they were all born abroad and brought to Britain as their parents fled persecution. Clare is thought to have been born in Romania, her family having stayed there for a while 3 www.jewsfww.london ! on their journey from Galicia (now part of Ukraine). The uncertainty over the location of her birth is due to a lack of official records from this period, this being a common feature of the life of refugees, then and unfortunately also today. Following a route familiar to many modern refugees, the Birnberg family travelled through Germany before settling in the midst of London’s Jewish community in the East End. Bernard Meninsky and Jacob Kramer were born in Ukraine, both being brought to Britain as boys. Bernard came to Liverpool and Jacob to Leeds. Whilst Bernard was very young when he came to Britain, Clare and Jacob had known lives elsewhere and would remember these throughout their lives. This was different to the other boys who only heard of their parents’ original home through stories. ‘Two Women and Child’ (1913) by Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950) Coloured pencil on paper 4 www.jewsfww.london ! Bernard went to art school in Liverpool and also studied art in Paris, before returning to England to attend the Slade School of Fine Art. Once he started working, Bernard continued to move around, teaching art in Italy, serving in Europe with the British Army and later teaching art in Oxford and London. Jacob Kramer moved around less, spending most of his life in Yorkshire. However, Jacob lived in London whilst attending the Slade School of Fine Art. He then stayed on for a number of years afterwards, as London was the centre of the English art world, before returning to Leeds. As these five children grew up, their love of art also grew, but they were from very poor backgrounds at a time when most education had to be paid for. If they were to become artists, they needed to go to art school, but their parents could not afford the fees. Clare Winsten gained a scholarship from the London County Council to help her study art. After attending the Royal Female School of Art, she transferred to the Slade School of Fine Art, where she met David Bomberg, Mark Gertler and Isaac Rosenberg. Young Jewish writers such as Clare’s husband to-be, Samuel Weinstein (later Stephen Winsten), John Rodker and Joseph Leftwich also moved in the same circles as their artist friends. 5 www.jewsfww.london ! ‘Landscape’ by Clare Winsten (1892-1984) Oil on canvas 6 www.jewsfww.london ! ‘Portrait of Joseph Leftwich’ (1919) by Clare Winsten (1892-1984) Oil on canvas These boys, and also Bernard Meninsky and Jacob Kramer, now grown into young men, received grants from a charity called ‘the Jewish Education Aid Society’ to enable them attend art school. This society had been set up in 1896, to help Jewish children with great talent to receive a good education when their families could not afford to provide this. Grants were given to support children studying science, music, general subjects & literature, as well as art. 7 www.jewsfww.london ! The Jewish Education Aid Society (known by the initials JEAS) was important both for the growing Jewish immigrant community, but also as a result for the development of 20th Century British art. Funds from the JEAS helped many others including Mark Gertler. This encouraged them to step beyond the social boundaries of their backgrounds in the East End (and for Bernard Meninsky and Jacob Kramer, provincial Lancashire and Yorkshire) and to use their talents and interests to further themselves in the art world. ‘At the Window’ (1919) by David Bomberg (1890-1957) Oil on canvas 8 www.jewsfww.london ! Some of the subjects for their art reflected their Jewish backgrounds, such as ‘Ghetto Theatre’ by David Bomberg (1920) and ‘The Day of Atonement’ by Jacob Kramer (1919). However, the artists’ painting techniques often embraced aspects of the emerging art movement ‘Modernism’. They helped British art develop in this regard and it was JEAS that facilitated the nurturing of their talent. ‘Ghetto Theatre’ (1920) by David Bomberg (1890 – 1957), oil on canvas Ben Uri by its very presence and core objectives also nurtured Jewish artistic talent, by providing a focal point for artistic and cultural discussion and through exhibitions. 9 www.jewsfww.london ! Founded in 1915 by émigré artist Lazar Berson as an Art Society, it provided financial assistance to a number of artists from its limited resources, including David Bomberg and Jacob Kramer. Over time, Ben Uri ensured that the contribution of Jewish artists received due attention, including David and Jacob and also Mark Gertler, Bernard Meninsky, Isaac Rosenberg and Clare Winsten. Lazar was slightly older than David and the others, having been born in 1882, in Lithuania. He had moved from his home in Lithuania to France in the years preceding the First World War and arrived in England in 1914 as part of the refugee movement from northern France and Belgium. He had a different set of experiences to those of David and friends. Lazar was committed to promoting Jewish art and his decorative work inspired the first Ben Uri logo. He left London in 1916 for the (then) neutral U.S.A. and died in France. Ben Uri is now in its second millennium and has dynamic collection, exhibition, education and wellbeing programmes focussing through art on identity and migration in the cntre of London’s mainstream museum sector. You can find out more at www.benuri.org 10 www.jewsfww.london ! \ ’Circular Design for Ben Uri Art Society’ (c.1915), by Lazar Berson (1882-1954) Coloured inks on paper Ben Uri was founded during the second year of the First World War and this conflict was to have a major impact on all communities in London, including the Jewish East End. Mark Gertler and his friends from the Slade School of Art were all of an age to directly serve in the front-line or (in the case of Clare Winsten) on the home front. Isaac Rosenberg enlisted in the army in 1915 and served in France, where he was killed in 1918. David Bomberg also enlisted in 1915, but he suffered a self-inflicted wound and was put on light duties, before undertaking support duties at the front line. He was later asked to produce some war art. Bernard Meninsky also became a war artist, having previously been a non-combatant, like Jacob Kramer, who was only enlisted right at the end of the War as he was considered a friendly ‘alien’ on account of his Russian birth. They had both been born in Ukraine (then part of Britain’s ally, Russia).
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