Oil on canvas. Expertly restored. Framed.

POLISH SCHOOL. Yom Kippur Eve at the Cemetery.

circa 1880

In many ways reminiscent of Medieval Art, the flat, symetrical and almost too rigid appearance of this painting has wonderfully harmonious quality of balance. Neither the Chassid nor the child who accompanies him engage the viewer, but rather stare at a spot just beyond the frame of the work, leaving it up to the viewer to wonder whose grave it is they have come to pray beside. Wearing a Chassid’s sartorial finery with prayer-book and shawl in hand, a costume reserved only for Sabbath, Festivals and semi-Holy Days, it is most likely the scene occurs on the Eve of the Day of Atonement, a semi-Holy Day, when it is customary to pray at the graves of parents and ancestors beseeching them to interceded on High on behalf of their descendants