Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn, 1856
This painting portrays an imagined meeting of Jewish scholar Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), and the Swiss theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) in Mendelssohn’s Berlin home. In real life, the three never met together. Mendelssohn, considered a central figure of the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment), and Lessing were friends at a time when it was highly unusual for Christians and Jews to socialize. Their friendship is considered a foundational moment in the history of German-Jewish relations. Lavater tried, but failed, to convert Mendelssohn to Christianity. In the painting, Lavater, it seems, has interrupted a chess game between Mendelssohn (left) and Lessing, and has brought a book he thinks will convince Mendelssohn to convert. Lessing is standing at the center, looking sternly at Lavater for his presumptuous behavior, while Mendelssohn listens to his argument. Through a doorway, under a Hebrew inscription, a woman is shown bringing refreshments. Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn, oil on canvas.
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Credits
Gift of Vernon Stroud, Eva Linker, Gerda Mathan, Ilse Feiger, and Irwin Straus in memory of Frederick and Edith Straus, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.
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