David and Goliath
oil on canvas
365 x 161
2013-f1
@The Werthwhile Foundation
Photo: Ben Uri Gallery
In the biblical Book of Samuel the Philistine giant, Goliath, is defeated in single combat by the boy David.Feibusch only began to paint works on religious subjects after his immigration...
In the biblical Book of Samuel the Philistine giant, Goliath, is defeated in single combat by the boy David.Feibusch only began to paint works on religious subjects after his immigration to Britain, although he had seen and admired Renaissance mural paintings in Italy, and in the early 1930s, as a member of the Frankfurter Künstlerbund who had been tasked with a series of murals, he had taught himself about mural techniques. Following his first public mural in England, The Footwashing, for the New Methodist Hall in Colliers Wood, commissioned by Edward D. Mills in 1937, Feibusch was commissioned by Dr Bell, the Bishop of Chichester, to paint a chapel in Brighton which led to several other Church of England commissions, including Chichester Cathedral. Feibusch went on become Britain’s most prolific muralist, creating work in some 40 Anglican churches and cathedrals, as well as synagogues and public buildings; he published his book on mural painting in 1946.This commission for five paintings for the Stern Hall in the West London Synagogue was completed in 1973. In his Times obituary (21 July 1998), it was noted how his religious works exhibited 'brilliant colour and a composition which is generally suave and classical, often lyrical: he was a man who valued warmth and passions in religion, knew how to project joy and sorrow in his painting, sorrow for European conflict being for many decades a keenly felt emotion'.>