The Day of Atonement

The painter Jacob Kramer was born in Ukraine and moved with his family to Leeds in 1900. He studied at the Leeds School of Art from 1907 to 1913 and at the Slade School of Art in London from 1913 to 1914. His paintings were included in the Jewish section of the landmark 1914 Whitechapel exhibition of modern art. His early works, including his later masterpiece Day of Atonement, were strikingly original examples of English expressionism. In the 1920s he returned to Leeds and his career took a downturn. He lived in alcohol-soaked poverty, producing second-rate portraits of local figures.