Page 47 - Gallery 19C Nazarenes Catalogues
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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





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