Rabbi Michel (Jechiel) Hirsch (1722-80).

SCHMIDT, GEORG FRIEDRICH

Berlin, 1762

Three-quarter length etching, featuring the bearded Rabbi of Potsdam wearing a fur hat and a fur-trimmed coat, with hands joined.

Rubens, Jewish Iconography no. 1882.

THE FIRST RABBINICAL PORTRAIT IN WESTERN ART. Although long thought that Rembrandt’s portrait of Menasseh ben Israel was the earliest Rabbinic portrait in the Western art, art historians generally now agree that Menasseh was not in fact the subject of that particular portrait. It is the present particular portrait, the first Rabbi in Potsdam, that take the place of honor. The inscription below the portrait reads in translation: “Hirsch Michel presents to Isaac Onis by Aaron Monceca” (referencing a popular 18th century novel about Jews). The artist, Georg Friedrich Schmidt (1712-75) studied art in Berlin under Busch, and under Nicolas Larmessin in Paris. In 1744 he was appointed engraver to Frederick II in Berlin, and in 1757 was summoned to Saint Petersburg by the Empress Elizabeth to engrave her portrait and organize a school of engraving. His engravings in the style of Rembrandt are considered to be among the greatest of 18th century Germany. See Phillip Greenspan and Annelies Mondi, “What Was the First Notable Rabbinical Portrait in Western Art?” (Jewish Action, Spring, 2017).