Carved wooden figure of a Jewish doctor in white coat and head mirror
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 5.750 inches (14.605 cm) | Width: 2.125 inches (5.398 cm) | Depth: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The figurine was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Contemporary, carved and painted wooden figure of a Jewish physician from Warsaw, Poland. It has a German slogan burned into the pedestal. This statue is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Carved, textured and painted, wooden figure of a man wearing a flat, silver-painted circular head mirror on a brown band around his forehead. He has short, straight, dark brown hair, thick and a light complexion with a large, hooked nose, protruding ears, and pink lips that turn downward at the corners. His thick eyebrows are arched above round spectacles. He wears white and brown-striped pants with a matching vest, a white shirt, and a red tie beneath a knee-length, white-tinted coat, possibly a medical coat. There are deep cuts for the vest and pants pockets. His hands are held behind his back, which pulls the coat backward and lifts-up the tail. His black painted shoes are centered on a low, rectangular, pedestal with an inscription along the curved front edge in black ink. The paint has worn in several places, and there is a small crack in the back edge of the pedestal.
Subjects
- Folk art--Europe--20th century.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Jewish physicians--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Jews in art.
Genre
- Object
- Decorative Arts