Jacob Steinhardt (1887-1968), Woodcuts for the Book of Ben Sira – The Soncino Society – Berlin, 1929 – Nine ...

Jacob Steinhardt (1887-1968), Woodcuts for the Book of Ben Sira – The Soncino Society – Berlin, 1929 – Nine Woodcuts. Signed by Steinhardt in Pencil

Jakob Steinhardt, Neun Holzschnitte zu ausgewählten Versen aus dem Buche Jeschu ben Elieser ben Sirah [Nine Woodcuts for Selected Verses from the Book of Ben Sirah], Berlin: Soncino-gesellschaft der Freunde des jüdischen Buches [the Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book], Aldus Press, 1929. Hebrew & German.

One of 800 copies, signed by Steinhardt on the colophon. Introduction by Arnold Zweig

Jacob Steinhardt (1887-1968) was born in Zerkow, Prussia. In 1906, with the financial support of his townspeople, he started studying painting in Berlin under Lovis Corinth and etching with Hermann Struck. After a long stay in France and Italy, Steinhardt returned to Germany, where he co-founded with the artists Ludwig Meidner and Richard Janthur the expressionist group "Die Pathetiker". With the outbreak of World War I, Steinhardt enlisted in the German army and was positioned in Lithuania, where he became familiar with the traditional lifestyle of local Jews.

His portrait sketches of Lithuanian Jews were exhibited by the Berlin Sezession group in 1917, and thanks to them, Steinhardt was accepted as a member of the group. After the war, he started making woodcuts inspired by the images of the war and his awakened Jewish identity. In 1933, he was arrested by the Germans for allegedly disturbing the Führer's speeches, but was released due to his being a well-known artist. Several days later, he immigrated Palestine with his wife and daughter and after several months in Tel Aviv, settled in Jerusalem and opened an art school.

In 1949, Steinhardt closed his school and was appointed the director of the graphics department of New Bezalel. Between 1953 and 1957, he headed the school (a position he was promised much earlier but was given first to Joseph Budko). In 1955, he was awarded an international prize in graphic art at the Sau Paulo Biennale in Brazil. Steinhardt, a prominent artist of German Expressionism, was famous mainly for his woodcuts; however, he never abandoned the easel. His work manifests humane protest alongside nostalgia for biblical times and for the Shtetl. He established a generation of students who continued his expressionist style.

A  good copy. Stains, mostly on the endpapers & binding.