Ben Uri company logo
Ben Uri
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Homepage
  • About Ben Uri
  • What's on
  • Visit Us
  • Exhibitions
  • Collections
  • Research Unit - resources
  • BU TV
  • Podcasts
  • Shop
  • Kids Programme
  • Arts and Mental Health
  • Support Us
  • Contact Us
  • Art Shop
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Twitter-x, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Twitter-x, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Menu
Out of Chaos
Ben Uri: 100 Years in London

Out of Chaos : Ben Uri: 100 Years in London

Forthcoming exhibition
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Installation Views
  • Publications
  • Virtual Exhibition
  • Videos
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Samuel Hirszenberg, Sabbath Rest

Samuel Hirszenberg 1865-1908

Sabbath Rest
oil on canvas
149.5 x 206.5
and dated (lower right): 'S. Hirszenberg, 1894'
1987-148
Photo: Bridgeman images
Hirszenberg was preoccupied with themes of exile and wandering. His painting, 'Exile'(1904, lost), was reproduced in the Yiddish magazine 'Ost und West' to great acclaim the following year. However, 'Sabbath...
Read more
Hirszenberg was preoccupied with themes of exile and wandering. His painting, 'Exile'(1904, lost), was reproduced in the Yiddish magazine 'Ost und West' to great acclaim the following year. However, 'Sabbath Rest', a later version of an 1890 work of the same title and similar composition in the Museum of Modern Art, Lodz, shows how his interest in this subject pre-dates this composition. In this version, several details have been altered to emphasise the narrative of migration. Three generations are gathered in one room around the bedridden matriarch to keep the Sabbath. Their piety is indicated by the candlesticks on the table and the hanging star-shaped Judenstern lamp, which burns for 24 hours. A young boy leans on his grandfather, his parents seated at the table; the muted palette conveys their poverty, but two older grandchildren by the window are symbolically closer to a brighter future. Their traditional way of life is contrasted with the encroaching industrialization of the Lodz workers’ quarter just glimpsed through the window behind them. The elder grandson reads aloud from a ‘Letter from Argentina’, an alternative title for the painting according to ‘Ruth’ (Hirszenberg’s convert wife) in 'Ost und West'.The theme of migration is further emphasized by the identification of the sitter in the larger portrait as Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a tireless supporter of Jewish immigration to Argentina, via his Jewish Colonial Organization, established in 1891. The second portrait is thought to be that of the relative who has migrated to Argentina. Hirszenberg’s work influenced a number of later Jewish artists including Marc Chagall and Alfred Wolmark who specifically referenced 'Sabbath Rest' in his own 'Sabbath Afternoon' transposing the setting to London’s Jewish East End.'Sabbath Rest' is a key painting in the Ben Uri collection, and one of the earliest acquisitions, purchased in 1923 for £143 through subscription and the support, principally, of Moshe Oved. It was the opening exhibit in the first collection display when ‘Ben Uri Gallery and Club’ opened in May 1925 at 68 Great Russell Street, opposite the British Museum. This painting was also loaned to the Whitechapel Art Gallery's 'Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities' (17 May - 26 June 1927).
Close full details

Provenance

presented by Mosheh Oved 1923

Exhibitions

Homeless & Hidden 1: World Class Collection Homeless & Hidden;Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities;Shtetl Scenes: A Selection from the Society's Permanent Collection together with New Acquisitions

Literature

Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall, eds., 'Out of Chaos: Ben Uri; 100 Years in London' (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2015) pp. 28-29.; Walter Schwabe and Julia Weiner, eds., Jewish Artists: the Ben Uri Collection - Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture (London: Ben Uri Art Society in association with Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, 1994), p. 53.
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
2 
of  67

Related artists

  • Jankel Adler

    Jankel Adler

  • Nirveda Alleck

    Nirveda Alleck

  • Oreet Ashery

    Oreet Ashery

  • Yaki Assayag

    Yaki Assayag

  • Frank Auerbach

    Frank Auerbach

  • Lazar Berson

    Lazar Berson

  • Martin Bloch

    Martin Bloch

  • Dorothy Bohm

    Dorothy Bohm

  • David Bomberg

    David Bomberg

  • David Breuer-Weil

    David Breuer-Weil

  • Marc Chagall

    Marc Chagall

  • Bernard Cohen

    Bernard Cohen

  • Arnold Daghani

    Arnold Daghani

  • Sonia Delaunay

    Sonia Delaunay

  • Shmuel Dresner

    Shmuel Dresner

  • Amy Drucker

    Amy Drucker

  • Natan Dvir

    Natan Dvir

  • Ernst Eisenmayer

    Ernst Eisenmayer

  • Jacob Epstein

    Jacob Epstein

  • Eva Frankfurther

    Eva Frankfurther

  • Barnett Freedman

    Barnett Freedman

  • Yitzhak Frenkel-Frenel

    Yitzhak Frenkel-Frenel

  • Rachel Garfield

    Rachel Garfield

  • Mark Gertler

    Mark Gertler

  • George Grosz

    George Grosz

  • Leo Haas

    Leo Haas

  • Victor Hageman

    Victor Hageman

  • Solomon Alexander Hart

    Solomon Alexander Hart

  • Josef Herman

    Josef Herman

  • Leon Hirszenberg

    Leon Hirszenberg

  • Lily Delissa Joseph

    Lily Delissa Joseph

  • R. B. Kitaj

    R. B. Kitaj

  • Clara Klinghoffer

    Clara Klinghoffer

  • Leon Kossoff

    Leon Kossoff

  • Chana Kowalska

    Chana Kowalska

  • Jacob Kramer

    Jacob Kramer

  • Emmanuel Levy

    Emmanuel Levy

  • Max Liebermann

    Max Liebermann

  • Alfred Lomnitz

    Alfred Lomnitz

  • Ludwig Meidner

    Ludwig Meidner

  • Edwin Mingard

    Edwin Mingard

  • Jacqueline Nicholls

    Jacqueline Nicholls

  • Moshe Oved

    Moshe Oved

  • Daniel Quintero

    Daniel Quintero

  • Sophie Robertson

    Sophie Robertson

  • Isaac Rosenberg

    Isaac Rosenberg

  • Michael Rothenstein

    Michael Rothenstein

  • Arthur Segal

    Arthur Segal

  • Simeon Solomon

    Simeon Solomon

  • Solomon J Solomon

    Solomon J Solomon

  • Chaïm Soutine

    Chaïm Soutine

  • Irma Stern

    Irma Stern

  • Lesser Ury

    Lesser Ury

  • Clare Winsten

    Clare Winsten

  • Alfred Wolmark

    Alfred Wolmark

  • Ezra Wube

    Ezra Wube

  • Zeev Ben Zvi

    Zeev Ben Zvi

Back to exhibition Overview
Back to exhibitions

Be the first to know – Sign Up

Sign up

* denotes required fields

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you are not happy with this, you can opt-out below. 

 

Read More

VISIT US

108a Boundary Road, St John’s Wood, London, NW8 0RH

Now open Wednesday to Friday 10 am - 5.30 pm

Please check the dates on What's on.

admin@benuri.org

 

 

Homepage

What’s On

About

Contact

Support

Exhibitions

Collections

Research Unit

Essays / Catalogues

Loans 

BU TV

Podcasts

Health

Kids

Press

Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Twitter-x, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Pinterest, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Vimeo, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Privacy Policy
Accessibility Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Ben Uri
Site by Artlogic

We use cookies to make our website work more efficiently, to provide you with more personalised services or advertising, and to analyse traffic on our website. For more information please read our cookies policy. If you don't agree to the use of our cookies, the quality of your experience of our website may be lessened.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Be the first to know – Sign Up

Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about everything new at Ben Uri, including the constantly evolving and expansive online content across our exhibitions, collection and research.

 

We value and respect your privacy. Your personal data will be kept private and processed securely, according to our Privacy Policy. If you change your mind anytime, you can unsubscribe directly when receiving a mail from us (the link will be at the bottom of the email) or contact us.

Sign up

* denotes required fields

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you are not happy with this, you can opt-out below. 

 

Read More


EnglishFrenchGermanItalianPortugueseRussianSpanish