Head of a Yemenite Woman, Ruth II
Artist Isaac Lichtenstein
Accession number 1987-222
The title of this work tells us that Isaac Lichtenstein chose a Yemenite woman as his model for the biblical Ruth; probably as a woman whose Eastern origin and traditional garb closely approximated his ideal of what the biblical Ruth would have looked like. Her elegant, elongated and abstracted features recall the work of Modigliani, a fellow member with Lichtenstein in the School of Paris.
While showing poise and presence, Lichtenstein’s Ruth also looks perceptively and quizzically around her, aware of the nuances of the Judean cultural norms she is learning and practising. In her arms she holds a generous bouquet of wheat and barley which she has gleaned from the fields of Boaz, her kinsman through Naomi, who will shortly marry her, enabling her to fully integrate into Judean society and be assured of stability and prosperity in her new home.
Lichtenstein shows us a migrant on the cusp of full assimilation, in whom the potential of the person who is shortly to be welcomed and accepted is already seen and recognised.
