Isidor Kaufmann

ISIDOR KAUFMANN
1853-1921

Isidor Kaufmann (1853-1921) is the most important Jewish genre painter. Born in Hungary, trained in Budapest and Vienna, and travelling throughout Eastern Europe, Kaufmann was constantly in search of material in Jewish towns and villages, sketching as he went. He began producing Shtetel paintings that were characterized by an exhaustive attention to detail and an acute sense of the psychological authenticity of his models. His brushwork is so precise that it is visible often under magnification. In addition to the brilliance of his colors, it was especially the objective accuracy of his drawings that disciplined the interaction of all pictorial elements and in combination with the brightness of the images inspired the feeling of clarity.