The Russian-Turkeyish [sic] War "Pllwna".

(RUSSIA)

New York, J. Richman, c. 1877

Colored Lithograph. “Copyright [sic] by Prof. J.S. Kolbe, NY.” Framed.

A Most Unusual American Lithograph. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, Russia suffered its first serious reversal at Plevna (Northern Bulgaria). The purpose of this image was likely to serve as Russian propaganda, an attempt to gain the sympathy of American Jewry, as the Turks were said to be recruiting for their army in New York. Additionally, the pro-Turkish press had publicized atrocities committed by the Russian army against the Jewish civilian population. Executed by a capable artist, who must have worked from sketches made on the spot, the details of the image are most precise. Indeed the artist likely had the advice of someone well acquainted with Jewish ritual. See The Jewish Heritage in American Folk Art (1984) p.61; A. Rubens, A Jewish Iconography, Supplementary Volume (1982) Addendum 7-8, no. 2194a color plates 72-73. A similar, rather better known, but entirely different image is of the French- and German-Jewish soldiers of Metz commemorating the Day of Atonement at an open-air service during the Franco-Prussian War. See Jewish Museum (London) Catalogue (1974) number 664 and Jewish Museum (New York) Catalogue, Fabric of Jewish Life (1977) number 246.