Maurycy Gottlieb (Feb. 21, 1856-July 17, 1879) was born in Drohobycz, current day Ukraine, to Isaac Gottlieb and his wife Fanya Tigerman, who were wealthy, Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox Jews. At age 15, he enrolled in a three-year course at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy.
In 1873, he studied art in Krakow under Jan Matejko, but left less than a year later because of the antisemitism he encountered at the School of Fine Arts. He traveled in Europe for a while, stopping in Munich to study under Karl von Piloty and Alexander von Wagner.
His painting “Shylock and Jessica” won the Gold Medal at the Munich Academy. Later, he returned to Vienna to study under Heinrich von Angeli, and produced paintings on biblical themes. Meeting in Rome, Matejko urged him to return to Krakow to work on a series of monumental paintings including scenes depicting the history of the Jews in Poland. In 1879, Maurycy died from health complications, with one romantic account asserting that he purposely exposed himself to the elements after he heard that Laura Rosenfeld had married another man.
Some of his best best known artworks are “Recha Welcoming her Father;” “Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur,” which hangs in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and Christ Preaching at Capernaum.”
Tomorrow, February 22: Rashi
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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article