Oil/Oil Wash painting on canvas by Shalom Moskovitz
Painting: 24" x 16"
Frame: 30" x 22.5".Provenance:Estate of Edward Needle,NYC.Davids notes: Not much known about Edward Needle, the family said most of the items he owned came from his parents.He lived at 200 east 71st street, in NYC.He owned several works by Moskovitz, we will sell them this fall.We went back and forth on this one as to watercolor or painting, and we ultimately said it was a painting, since it is oil on canvas.It is just the oil is thinned out, but that is just the artists style.

Shalom Moskovitz
(Source: binethgallery.com) Shalom Moskovitz (1896-1980) known as Shalom of Safed began to paint relatively late, at the age of 55. For more than half a century he worked at various crafts, mainly watch-making, but also as a stonemason and silversmith, and led a quite and religious life. He came across painting accidentally and started to paint subjects closest to his heart, the events of Jewish history, as narrated in the Old Testament and elaborated in the Talmud and other books. Shalom considered himself a historical writer rather than an artist, retelling the stories from Genesis and Exodus. He inserted scriptural verses and other legends to ensure clarity. His works often read like Hebrew with movement and sequence running from right to left, from top to bottom. Shalom had claimed that he did not work from his imagination, yet there is humor as well as imagination in his vivid colors and rearrangement of elements of his Bible stories.Although primitive in the sense of being untaught, Shalom paints neither as a recluse or a total naive. It is the indirect and intimate awareness of his heritage that enables him to transcend conventional barriers and forms.Shalom of Safed had many exhibitions around the world, among them at the Jewish Museum (New York), the Renaissance Society (Chicago), the Israel Museum (Jerusalem), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam).

Good condition overall