Talmud Students (study for an oil painting).

PILICHOWSKI, LEOPOLD.

c. 1925

Charcoal and pastel on board. Boldly signed center right.

Polish-born Pilichowski (1869-1933), perhaps most celebrated for his monumental painting of the opening of the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus in 1925, often executed paintings with religious themes, activities and locations - such as our Jewish House of Study theme. The work is a study for what was to become the completed oil painting “Talmud Students in the House of Study,” currently housed and exhibited in the Mendel Gottesman Library of Yeshiva University, New York. “The painting was presented to Yeshiva College in honor of the dedication of Yeshiva’s new building in Washington Heights in December 1928, by Mr. Bernard London, a member of Yeshiva’s Board of Directors… The painting of the Talmud Students in the House of Study hung prominently in the original Library of Yeshiva College, and was featured proudly as the centerpiece of official Yeshiva College faculty and graduation photographs for many years. The painting was moved to its current location when the Mendel Gottesman Library Building opened in 1969.” See http://blogs.yu.edu/library/2011/03/07/art-and-adar-in-the-library/.