Women at Prayer. Signed by artist below.

PILICHOWSKI, LEOPOLD (1869-1933).

London (?), Early 20th Century.

Pastel on canvas

Polish born Pilichowski, painted with great success in the traditional Rembrandtesque manner, which characterizes, with some impressionist innovations, his portraits of Jewish types and genre scenes. Pilichowski lived for a short time in Paris and then came to London in 1914 where seemingly he painted this study for a larger composition of a Synagogue in London. Many of his large pictures were crowded with pious Jews in a variety of moods and postures. This image, of the Women’s Section of the Synagogue, with subjects in various stages of prayer and meditation, is a classic representation of Pilichowski’s work. It contains much detail in it’s composition and many small, variantly colored brushstrokes magnificently pulled together. See: C. Roth Jewish Art (1961) col. 589; Jewish Artists: The Ben Uri Collection (1987) pp. 84-85; EJ XIII col. 520.