Page 46 - Gallery 19C Nazarenes Catalogues

2 1 PROVENANCE EXHIBITED LITERATURE
Eduard Julius Bendemann Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, Düsseldorf, Stiftung Museum Grewe 2017, 285–287, ill. 287
GER M AN, 1811–1889 18 March 1998, lot 1. Kunstpalast, The Düsseldorf School
of Painting and its International
Private Collection, California
THE CAPTIVE JEWS IN BABYLON (acquired at the above sale) Influence 1819–1918, 24 September
after 1832 Private Collection, Texas 2011 22 January 2012, no. 52, 147.
oil on canvas (acquired from the above)
27 ¹/₂ by 40 ⁵/₈ in. (69 by 102 cm)

Nothing he had recently seen could compare to the monumental canvas of cast down, like a powerful allegory of melancholy. Only the last of the One secret of this success was certainly Bendemann’s decision to and The Grieving Jews. … I was inspired by them; they are by Bendemann, a
the Jews at the Rivers of Babylonian, this, Carl Gustav Carus (1789–1869) four, a mother with an infant in her arms, seems hopeful. Letting her gaze present his sublime depiction of Jewish history in the grand manner painter from Düsseldorf … . I would not compose the full text, the end of
was sure. The German physiologist would have known; after all, he himself wander into the far distance, she heralds an unwavering trust in God, a of Renaissance and Nazarene fresco, while avoiding all orientalism. ⁵ which is gruesome and full of hate and vengeance; I would give only the
was among the foremost landscape painters of the German Romantic belief in the divine promise of a bright future for herself and her offspring. This might also be a reason why his Captive Jews have lost little of their impression of a longing for home.” ⁸ It is this longing that still, beyond
cohort. The fact that the artist who had delivered this feast of modern Among the Jews at the river of Babylon, she is the figure seeing salvation. appeal. Multiplying in all kinds of reproductions, not least digitally religious alliances or national borders, speaks to the modern viewer.
history painting was extremely young made it even more noteworthy. Premiered at the biannual exhibition of the Berlin Academy in 1832 online, they still occupy a place of pride at their original destination,
Overnight, Eduard Bendemann (1811–1889) had become a household and an immediate sensation, the canvas subsequently toured Germany the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne. Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem Cat. 1a Ferdinand Ruscheweyh, after Eduard Bendemann, Captive Jews
name. The work, Carus confided in his diary in 1835, has “a very special with continuing triumph. Indeed, the picture had already made such was not so lucky. Its fate was sealed by the air raids of 1943, when its Weeping by the Waters of Babylon, 1832, copper engraving on paper,
effect on the viewer. In no other new historical picture of the Luxembourg an impression while still in the studio that the local art union had homestead, a palace in the North German city of Hanover, went up in 29.2 × 38.8 cm (plate), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
or the Louvre have I found a spirit even remotely comparable to that commissioned a large-scale print after the yet unfinished canvas flames. Jeremiah’s memory survives only in print. The two paintings quickly
of this picture.” ¹ The admiration of this hitherto unknown “emphatic (Cat. 1a). Soon the dolorous Jews found themselves on embroidery occupied a special place in the Jewish imagination as well. Already in 1901 Cat. 1b Georg Jacob Felsing, after Eduard Bendemann, Jeremiah on the
effect” went hand in hand with a powerful reaction to the innovative designs, tobacco boxes and coloring pages or glowed in the translucent Bendemann was, one might note, among the eleven artists chosen for Ruins of Jerusalem, 1838. Plate from Athanasius Graf Raczyński, Histoire de
motif that spoke—Bendemann’s audiences were convinced—directly to beauty of porcelain copies. ³ However, the over-the-top popularity also a small exhibition at the 5th Zionist congress, and the Captive Jews soon l'art moderne (Paris: Jules Renouard, 1836–1841). Etching and engraving,
one of the most critical issues in contemporary politics. “Although the caused an unexpected crisis, and Düsseldorf found itself competing with was celebrated as a Jewish picture by a Jewish artist. This, however, is 23 × 37.6 cm (plate), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
depiction of this misfortune appears in the guise of the past,” the well- Berlin over the painting’s purchase. Concerned, Bendemann appeased misleading. Insofar as Bendemann himself came from a Jewish family,
known Düsseldorf art critic Hermann Püttmann (1811–1874) exclaimed both parties by offering the Prussian crown prince another subject from but his parents already had converted to Protestantism and he had been ¹ Cited after Baumgärtel 2011, vol. 2, 164.
a few years later, “Bendemann’s pictures of Jews speak a profound Jewish history, Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem (Cat. 1b). Completed in 1836, baptized as a baby. Moreover, the symbolism of his pictures leaves no ² Püttmann 1839, 43-44.
word into the day’s debates about the emancipation of the unfortunate Bendemann’s second Jewish history was equally well received, winning doubt about the deeply Christian nature of his art. ⁶ Hence, the young
people, and if it is true that art can have an influence on cultural a gold medal in Paris at the Salon of 1837. The French fascination with mother and her infant are modelled after a “Madonna and Child,” the ³ Krey 2003, esp. 88-89.
progress, ... these pictures can serve instead of the best plaidoyers.” ² vine wrapping itself around the willow tree cites a common attribute of ⁴ See Ribner 2014.
the German wunderkind was awoken; and in a blink of the eye The Captive ⁵ Wittler 2014, esp. 67-68.
Until the young Bendemann had turned to the 137th Psalm on a Jews had become a veritable prototype for French depictions of exile Christ (representing the blood shed for humanity’s salvation), and the
monumental scale, history painting had not paid much attention to in extremis. ⁴ This success stemmed above all from the composition’s group’s repose paraphrases the popular motif of “Rest on the Flight from ⁶ For an in-depth discussion of the motif’s theological and exegetical
implications see Grewe 2009 b.
the end of the old Jewish empire and the fate of those exiled by King emotive allure that, in the typical manner of Düsseldorf soul-painting, Egypt.” Thus, if Bendemann’s image clearly celebrated the inner strength
Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 630-c. 561 BC) after the siege of Jerusalem in 597 invited the viewer to project their own desires onto the motif. When of the Old covenant and drew attention to the plight of Germany’s ⁷ Bastek / Thimann 2009.
BC. The psalm opens with a powerful lament, “By the rivers of Babylon, Eugène Delacroix, for example, seized the theme in 1838, he did so as a contemporary Jewry, it was no less an ardent call for conversion. The ⁸ The remark was noted by Liszt’s pupil and later secretary August Göllerich
there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion,” which symbol of the love of nation required of those legislators who roamed the future of the Jewish people, the picture tells us in no uncertain terms, in his biography Franz Liszt (Berlin: Marquardt, 1908, 170).
Bendemann cites in the spandrels of the decorative frame. Beneath, the Palais-Bourbon library in search of books and guidance. Two years after is Christian. Under the Nazarene’s brush, the Old Testament story of
mourning Jews have settled under a large willow at the banks of the the completion of the Palais’ theology cupola, Charles-Adolphe Richard- exile becomes integral to the salvational history of the New. ⁷ What
Euphrates. The massive tree provides shade and shelter for an old harper Cavaro delivered a Hellenized version of the captive Jews, now simply distinguishes Bendemann’s vision, however, from the era’s aggressive
in chains whose heroic figure forms the rock for a group of young women called The Exiles (Salon of 1849, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, anti-Judaic imagery is an emphatic denial of violence. His is a utopian
in need of comfort. The youngest has slumped into his lap hiding her face, Besançon). The list could go on. Despite the remarkable subject’s vision of a divine will, of a kingdom of peace, not a world of persecution
overwhelmed by grief and longing. On the left, a dark-haired beauty has specificity, it emancipated itself in the end from its biblical origins and or genocide. Franz Liszt (1811–1886) clearly picked up on that. “I will
let her zither slide to the ground as she pauses in deep thought, her eyes turned into a universal commentary on exile and the diasporic experience. compose for you two artworks,” he told a certain Miss Genast, “Jeremiah

46 47