In his time, Napoleon Sarony was considered one of the world’s greatest portrait photographers. He specialized in portraits of actors, which he mass produced as cheap cartes-de-visite, and other types of cards. Their popularity with the public reflected the new interest in theater and celebrity that emerged in America after the Civil War. Sarony, born in Canada, began his career in New York as a lithographer but, at a time when the art of photography was still very new, went to Europe for training. He established his first studio in New York City in 1866, but in only a few years was able to open a larger studio in the city’s Union Square.
Iofin’s portrait of his parents, painted before his emigration from the Soviet Union, was a sly protest against Socialist Realism. He painted in the style but parodied it by overloading his picture…
Lerski’s portrait of a young Polish Jewish immigrant to Palestine is in his distinctive, expressionist style. Using mirrors and reflectors to emphasize the transformative powers of light, Lerski liked…
Three representatives of the Prague Burial Society in the 1730s are pictured in these portraits: Jonas Jeitteles (1735–1806, the community’s official physician), Rabbi Leib Fayvel Dayan (another…