Head of a Jewish Beggar: Study.

Exhibition label: Campbell & Franks Fine Arts, “Art from the East End” (London, May, 1976). An early notation on the back of frame reads: “Kramer did a number of heads for which elderly Jews were asked to sit. The artist’s sister remembers this one as the Leeds Jewish beggar who was frequently invited to join the Kramer family for a meal.” Jacob Kramer (1892-1962) was one of the most significant Anglo-Jewish artists of the 20th century. His work combined the avant-garde idiom of Cubism with Jewish subject matter, most famously so in his 1920 masterpiece: “The Day of Atonement” (Leeds City Art Gallery).