Page 325 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Genre: shtetl

prominent and his beard full and flowing; but his eyes and lips
are closed, and the forehead, although wrinkled, is not
frowning. Prayer, in this presentation, is serious and private,
the strength of a man turned inward in contemplation of and
conversation with the deity.

AR’s skill in sharpening and wielding chisels is demonstrated in
the incised calligraphy and the smooth lines representing
strands of hair in the peyes and beard. Very fine incisions define
a “modern” shirt with buttons and a collar, the only means the
viewer is provided to avoid mistaking the pious Jew for a
biblical character. The jarring line ordinarily created by the
missing shoulders of a conventional bust is softened and
hidden by the tallit, framing and unifying the entire piece. The
classical format is echoed in the unobtrusive turned base.

No. 149 is a miniature version of no. 43; it must have been
done first, perhaps giving AR the model to attempt in the
larger tour de force. The format is virtually the same: an
enclosing shawl around the entire figure, eyes closed, yarmulke
visible, with a long beard. It has no base, incised detail or
Hebrew inscriptions—not surprising for such a small carving.

67 Bust of an old man
Polychrome plaster
4” x 3.25”
Inscriptions:

AR (on back of shoulder)

Elkhanan (Hebrew, on back of collar)

A photograph of AR’s living room taken in the 1950s shows a
small group of painted plaster figures sitting on an old radio.
Only two are extant (see no. 119). AR preferred chiseling and
carving a resistant medium to molding a moist and pliant
substance like plaster of Paris, but the latter’s porous bone-
white surface gave him an opportunity to paint his product in
tempera. He constructed this head and shoulders of an elderly
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