W kręgu szkoły sztuk pięknych i rzemiosł artystycznych „Becalel” w Jerozolimie. Obraz Bliskiego Wschodu w twórczości malarzy – podróżników: Abrahama Neumanna (1873–1952), Wilhelma Wachtla (1875–1952)

Abstract

Wandering is an indispensable element of the human life. As the Bible tells us, “As long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:6). From the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the outbreak of World War II, as the interest in the Orient increased, the Middle Eastern countries: Egypt, Syria and Palestine became their destinations. During that time, approximately sixty artists made that journey, including over twenty of Jewish origin. Their trips involved teaching, and sometimes learning at the “Bezalel” School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem, which, from the moment when it was established in 1906, played a role of a centre of formation of national art of the resurgent Jewish statehood in Erec Israel [Hebrew: The Land of Israel]. The aim of the study is an attempt to analyse the relations between the artistic position and the attitude towards the Zionist idea and how it was reflected in the works of two travelling painters: Abraham Neumann (1873–1942) and Wilhelm Wachtel (1875–1952).