Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Samuel George Cahan
Vintage Illustration Judaica Painting, The Rabbi's (Men at Prayers)

About the Item

Genre: Judaica Subject: Religious Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States Dimensions: 24" x 18" x 3/4" Dimensions w/Frame: 29" x 23" Cahan uses vibrant oil paint to draw a portrait of four elderly Jewish men wearing prayer shawls also known as tallits. The man in the foreground is staring pensively into the distance while the other figures in the background read or pray. Each character shares the same scholarly air in their serious expressions and mannerisms. Cahan’s gestural use of color and brush strokes soften the painting’s protagonists, thereby shedding a more sensitive light on the painting. The well-known twentieth century American illustrator, etcher, and painter Samuel George Cahan was born in Kovno, Russia, now part of Lithuania. His parents were both born in Russia during the early 1870’s. Two years after his birth, his family emigrated to America and eventually settled in New York City's Lower East Side. Cahan said that his interest for drawing started when he was only an infant. In a 1967 interview, the artist describes his primary school years as vastly disinteresting. While other students heeded their teachers or studied math, Cahan drew. At 12-years-old, Cahan exhibited his early talent for drawing on Fulton Street’s sidewalk. Barefoot and armed with chalk, he crouched outside a restaurant and drew the sinking of Maine. At the time, it was recognizable ship that was smashed by the British. One of the men who passed by his vibrant rendering of the wreckage was the Chief Editor of the New York World newspaper, Nelson Hersh. Upon seeing the young boy’s skill, Hersh offered him a job in the newspaper’s art department. During his time at the newspaper, he worked on sketching court trials and learned from other prominent American artists working in the art department, such as George Luks. After leaving the newspaper, he explored other artistic mediums that combined his love of color and line. From etchings on copper plates, he moved onto watercolor, and finally to oil. As an adult, he began to seriously study Fine art. Cahan first studied with the famous American artist Robert Henri. They would meet in the evenings along with other students including George Bellows and Stuart Davis. He continued his studies at the distinguished Art Students League of New York and eventually became a life member. Throughout his life, he exhibited his work with French & Company Gallery. In addition, he showed his work at the National Academy of Design where he was honored with several awards. “An artist is not a camera,” was one of Cahan’s favorite mottos. He applied this belief to all his paintings. The artist was a great supporter of Judaism and would often take his inspiration from the Jewish community. Whether landscapes or portraits, many of his works blend his interest in culture, color, and narratives. Cahan uses gestural line and brush strokes to create emotion masterpieces that connect to broad audiences. Although Cahan died in 1974, he left a legacy of artworks that chronicle the Jewish community in New York City.
  • Creator:
    Samuel George Cahan (January 11, 1886 - October 23, 1974, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 23 in (58.42 cm)Width: 29 in (73.66 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    minor wear commensurate with age and use. (stretching can use some tightening).
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38211934422

More From This Seller

View All
Fruit Still Life Oil Painting Betsy Podlach American Post Feminist Modernist Art
By Betsy Podlach
Located in Surfside, FL
Betsy Podlach (American, born 1964.) Still life with Fruit and Glass Bottle Framed it measures 26.5 X 21.5 Canvas is 21.5 X 16.5 Betsy Podlach graduated from Harvard, cum laude, (she studied at Harvard with Alfred Decreido and William Reimann as well as Carlos Fuentes continuing her studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture, Ms. Podlach was awarded an art fellowship and residency at The International School of Art in Umbria, Italy. Betsy Podlach is an American painter who considers the Italian Venetians and the american abstract expressionist painters her mentors. The two painters she is most inspired by are Titian and Jackson Pollock, Both use the picture plane and abstraction and space, light, movement and form to communicate a physicality built entirely on the principals of painting, in the “classical” sense of a flat plane and lines, color, shape, space and light applied to that flat surface to create magic – light, space, form, emotion, force, movement, the physical and the spiritual. She describes her work as a figurative version of abstract expressionism. She was influenced by many of the abstract expressionists from the NY school...
Category

1990s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Street Scene Oil Painting Circa 1930s
By Albert Abramovitz
Located in Surfside, FL
Albert Abramovitz (1879-1963), born in Riga, Latvia, on January 24, 1879. He studied art at the Imperial Art School in Odessa and at the Grande Chaumière in Paris. In Paris, he becam...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oil Painting Harbor Scene with Naval Ships Sailors & Boats Hildegarde Hamilton
By Hildegarde Hamilton
Located in Surfside, FL
Hildegarde Hamilton (Florida, Virginia 1898-1970) Oil on canvas painting of a docked navy ship with sailors on shore. Hand signed lower left Measures: Canvas 19"H x 23"W; Framed 23.5"H x 28"W. Hildegarde Hume Hamilton (1898 - 1970) was active/lived in Florida, Virginia. He is known for Impressionist buildings in landscape and coastal view painting, illustration. Hildegard Hume Hamilton was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1898. After her education there, and brief training at the age of six in art schools in Venice, Italy, while on a European sojourn with her father, she studied fine art at the Académie Julian, the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Grande Chaumière in Paris, France, during the 1920s and 1930s. Back in the United States, Hamilton studied for a short time at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, the Cincinnati Art Academy and under the tutelage of the landscape and maritime painter Anthony Thieme (1888-1954) in Rockport, Massachusetts. The Ainslie Galleries on Fifth Avenue held an exhibit of Hamilton’s French Alpine Scenes to much acclaim. Hamilton exhibited in venues throughout the city and sold as many as 300 landscapes. In 1927, Vice President Charles Gates Dawes acquired one of Hamilton’s paintings following her one person exhibit at the Women’s National Party Headquarters in Washington D.C. In the autumn of 1928, an exhibition of her landscapes and cityscapes at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune in Paris was widely and positively reviewed. In 1929, she became the first American woman to exhibit at Philip Dillon’s club – L’Artistique, in Provence. She also contributed to the Salon des Artistes Independants in Paris. In 1930, Hamilton exhibited at the Carlton Hotel in Washington D.C. and in New York at the Grand Central Palace, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries on 57th Street, and the Huntington Bay and Yacht Clubs. During this period, the artist resided at 9 Gramercy Park in New York City. The picturesque neighborhood inspired Hamilton’s painting entitled 4 Gramercy Park, Mayor Harper’s House, Manhattan. C. 1930. The oil painting captures the red brick façade and intricate cast iron embellishments of 4 Gramercy Park, the former home of publisher and New York City Mayor James Harper (1795- 1869). The two lamps at the foot of the steps signify the home was a mayoral residence and remain at the site to this day. Mrs. Hamilton studied at the Art Students League, New York, New York, and the Cincinnati Art Academy, Cincinnati, Ohio. Hamilton exhibited her topographical street-scenes and landscapes widely throughout the United States with shows at the Syracuse, New York, Museum of Fine Art; the University of Kentucky; the University of Georgia, and most importantly, New York City’s Society of Independent Artists from 1929 to 1933, 1938, 1939, 1943 and 1944. She also illustrated books. Hamilton’s paintings are included in the collections of Wesleyan College, She was aof a generation of American artists that included Alfred Hutty, Wayne Beam Morrell, Frank Henry Shapleigh, Jane Peterson, Henry Martin Gasser, Emil Holzhauer...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Impressionist Oil Painting Dominican Landscape Scene Hildegarde Hamilton
By Hildegarde Hamilton
Located in Surfside, FL
Hildegarde Hamilton (Florida, Virginia 1898-1970) Oil on canvas painting of a Dominican townscape Frame: 17.75" X 14.25" Image: 12" X 8.5" Hildegarde Hume Hamilton (1898 - 1970) was active/lived in Florida, Virginia. He is known for Impressionist buildings in landscape and coastal view painting, illustration. Hildegard Hume Hamilton was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1898. After her education there, and brief training at the age of six in art schools in Venice, Italy, while on a European sojourn with her father, she studied fine art at the Académie Julian, the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Grande Chaumière in Paris, France, during the 1920s and 1930s. Back in the United States, Hamilton studied for a short time at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, the Cincinnati Art Academy and under the tutelage of the landscape and maritime painter Anthony Thieme (1888-1954) in Rockport, Massachusetts. The Ainslie Galleries on Fifth Avenue held an exhibit of Hamilton’s French Alpine Scenes to much acclaim. Hamilton exhibited in venues throughout the city and sold as many as 300 landscapes. In 1927, Vice President Charles Gates Dawes acquired one of Hamilton’s paintings following her one person exhibit at the Women’s National Party Headquarters in Washington D.C. In the autumn of 1928, an exhibition of her landscapes and cityscapes at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune in Paris was widely and positively reviewed. In 1929, she became the first American woman to exhibit at Philip Dillon’s club – L’Artistique, in Provence. She also contributed to the Salon des Artistes Independants in Paris. In 1930, Hamilton exhibited at the Carlton Hotel in Washington D.C. and in New York at the Grand Central Palace, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries on 57th Street, and the Huntington Bay and Yacht Clubs. During this period, the artist resided at 9 Gramercy Park in New York City. The picturesque neighborhood inspired Hamilton’s painting entitled 4 Gramercy Park, Mayor Harper’s House, Manhattan. C. 1930. The oil painting captures the red brick façade and intricate cast iron embellishments of 4 Gramercy Park, the former home of publisher and New York City Mayor James Harper...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sisters, American Impressionist Mid Century Oil Painting
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Surfside, FL
Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved through a range of styles and subjects over the course of his long career. Born in 1924, the self-taught artist seldom us...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Large American Impressionist Painting Sailor Girl with Toy Boat Richard Zolan
By Richard Judson Zolan
Located in Surfside, FL
Richard Judson Zolan (1931-2001) "Be Calm" A sailor girl (or sailor boy) with a toy boat in a pond. Oil painting on canvas, hand signed upper left, Dimensions 40 x 30”, framed to...
Category

20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

"First View of Liberia Airport" Costa Rican Landscape view of the tarmac arrival
By Darius Yektai
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"First view of Liberia Airport" is a small scale painting of the view during the artist's recent travels to Central America. Using a thin application of paint, Yektai smoothly conve...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American 20th Century Oil Painting Still Life of Fruits & Tea Set from 1934
By Robert Freiman
Located in New York, NY
A stunning depiction a still life from the mid century with thick use of paint and vibrant coloration. There is a statue of an elephant along with tangerines and tea set, a wonderful...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Sailboat" contemporary impressionist oil painting of boat on the beach, summer
By Ben Fenske
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Sailboat" is a contemporary impressionist oil painting of boat on the beach, in summer. Painted en plein-air in Sag Harbor, New York. A single sailboat rests on the shore of a quiet...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Figure in the Village" British American Impressionist Oil Painting on Canvas
By John Clymer
Located in New York, NY
A masterful oil painting depicting a figure in the village by British American artist John Clymer. As an Impressionist painter, he was known for his pastoral landscapes depicting sce...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tugboat Up for Repairs
By John Terelak
Located in Greenwich, CT
John Terelak Biography American, b. 1942 John Charles Terelak is recognized as one of America's finest living impressionists. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he received formal art i...
Category

2010s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flamingo Portrait of Lady of the Everglades
By Frederick Stuart Church
Located in Fredericksburg, VA
"Lady of the Everglades" by Frederick Stuart Church is a captivating portrait that combines the grace of a poised lady with the exotic beauty of flamingos, set against the lush backd...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All