The Cheerful Scholar. Pencil, watercolor and oil on panel. Signed by the artist lower right. In period frame

Provenance: The late ethnomusicologist, Prof. Johanna L. Spector, New York. Elements of this painting: the table, the high-backed chair, the loose boot in the left corner - and certainly the face of the model, can all be found in other works by Kaufmann. Viz. Katalog Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wein, Isidor Kaufmann (1995) “Two Pairs of Shoes” (p. 175); “The Chess Players” (p. 179) and “Commercial Instruction” (p.191). Seemingly an unfinished work, it has been suggested that the presence of Kaufmann’s signature on the painting would attest that in fact he viewed this as an accomplished picture. Indeed there is certainly great interest to see the “skeleton” of Kaufmann’s work, the use of pencil, leading to watercolor and then finished in oil.