Emmanuel Mané-katz (1894-1962) - Nude, 1924

Emannuel Mané-Katz (1894-1962)
Nude, 1924
Pastel on paper
28 x 46.5 cm at sight (61 x 78 cm with the frame)
Signed and dated lower right

Rare work that can be dated from the first Parisian years of Mané-Katz.

BIOGRAPHY
His childhood was totally steeped in Jewish culture. His father, who took care (chamach, in Yiddish - chames) of the Kremenchoug synagogue, educated him according to the precepts of the Orthodox Jewish religion, wishing him to become a rabbi. The young Emmanuel learned to draw in secret. He left his native hotel for the first time to study at the Vilnius School of Fine Arts, but ignorant of the secular world, he quickly returned to the family home. Encouraged by an artist from Odessa, he first entered the School of Decorative Arts in Myrhorod, at the age of sixteen, then enrolled in 1911 at the School of Fine Arts in Kiev and learned about European culture.
He arrived in Paris at the age of nineteen in 1913 and took lessons in the studio of Fernand Cormon. Wanting to join the foreign legion when war was declared, he was refused because of his short stature. He then traveled through Europe, visiting museums where he learned from the old masters and more particularly from Rembrandt. He discovered the painting of his contemporaries, the Fauves, including that of André Derain, who had a decisive influence. Back in Paris in 1921, the artist, who had forged a style for himself, was to find the source of his inspiration in the traditional Judeo-Slavic theme. He had his first private exhibition in 1922 at the Percier gallery. He gradually asserted himself as one of the painters of the Jewish soul alongside his elders from the School of Paris, Amedeo Modiglianie and Chaïm Soutine, and exhibited in many Parisian Salons and galleries, as well as at Groupe de l'Exhibitions. Friendship with notably Jeanne Besnard-Fortin, Serge Charchoune and Kostia Terechkovitch. His studio in rue Notre-Dame des Champs, inherited from Othon Friesz, was later passed on to his main pupil, the caricaturist Henri Morez. He was naturalized French in 1928.
Mané-Katz's art seeks to keep the Torah culture alive. His career within the School of Paris and in the Montparnasse group was more orthodox than that of Chagall, for example. Mané-Katz asserted himself as the great painter of the diaspora. Witness to the dispersal of the people of Israel, of Judeo-Slavic folklore, of Yiddish literature, Mané-Katz in his exile attests to his fidelity to his original tradition.
He is the painter of rabbis, ghettos, and the Righteous, that of dispersion, a true witness and poet of his people. He brings with him to the West this world of Talmudists, itinerant musicians following processions, married couples, prophets, craftsmen. Even if he does not want to be only a Jewish painter and he has devoted works to flowers, landscapes of Paris, Vendée and Brittany, he remains an interpreter of the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe. Despite many stays in Israel, he is unable to integrate into this new world and will never paint the new reality of a combative and proud Israel. In his canvases painted in Israel we always find his imagery of the landscapes of Ukraine and the old rabbis buried in his memory.
The city of Haifa in Israel has dedicated a museum to him on Yefe Nof Street.

Ref: SB5OLHPCSE