Moses Before the Amalakites

CARVALHO, SOLOMON NUNES

America, ca. 1848-1852. .

Oil on board. 16 x 20 inches. Framed

Exhibited: Yeshiva University Museum, The Sephardic Journey, New York, 1992. (Also exhibited: Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco)

"Solomon Nunes Carvalho (1815-1879), artist, daguerreotypist and portrait painter, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, later resided variously in Barbados, Philadelphia, Baltimore and finally New York. He helped establish a Sephardic congregation, Beit Israel, in Baltimore, which however, did not survive the departure of the Carvalho family from the city. Both of Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s parents were of Sephardic stock. His mother, Sarah D’Azevedo, came from a family which included Moses Cohen D’Azevedo, Haham of London (1720-1784). Reverend Isaac Leeser (1806-1868), hazzan of Congregation K.K. Mikveh Israel in Philadephia, was a friend of the artist. He performed the marriage in 1845 of Carvalho and Sarah Miriam Solis (1824-1894), the daughter of Jacob da Silva Solis and Charity Hays Solis. Solomon Carvalho was keenly interested in Jewish life and concerned about religious reform. He wrote several articles in Isaac Leeser’s journal, The Occident. Carvalho also corresponded with Leeser for many years on issues including Jewish belief, survival and assimilation and the subject of prayer in English rather than Hebrew. After moving to New York City, Carvalho was active in Congregation Shearith Israel and later Temple Israel in Harlem, which he founded. The present painting, is is one of two known narrative Biblical subjects painted by Carvalho, and the only one still extant. It is also the earliest Biblical painting by an American Jewish artist. The placement of monumental figures in the foreground with the background far in the distance is similar to works by contemporary Europeans, but there is no direct prototype for this painting. It depicts Aaron and Hur supporting Moses’ arms so that Israel would prevail in the battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:12). The painting can be viewed as an expression of Carvalho’s adherence to traditional Judaism. It also epitomizes the faith and prayer that sustained the crypto-Jews under the Inquisition, and in the various countries in which they built new Jewish lives after fleeing from Spain." Yeshiva University Museum Catalogue, The Sephardic Journey (New York, 1992) cat. no. 737 (see therein for further references)