Bronze bust of a bourgeois Jewish businessman
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 4.625 inches (11.748 cm) | Width: 2.750 inches (6.985 cm) | Depth: 2.750 inches (6.985 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 bust 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
Bronze bust with a caricatured depiction of a Jewish man in a suit, labelled Herr V. Mayer, with exaggerated Jewish facial features. This bust 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
Cast bronze bust of a middle aged man, with a bald crown, thick, curly hair and sideburns. He looks straight ahead with a smug, happy expression. He has plump cheeks and stereotypically Jewish facial features, perhaps exaggerated: heavy, arched eyebrows, deepset hooded eyes, a very big nose, and thick lips. The front details include a bowtie and a buttoned collared shirt, with lapels from a vest and a jacket. The name, Herr V. Mayer, is in a panel across the front. The bottom is smooth with a thimble shaped support attached to the top of pedestal with a short column that narrows than expands into raised circular base.
Subjects
- Jewish merchants--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Jews--Germany--Art--19th century.
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art.
- Jews in art.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
Genre
- Art
- Object