The merchants in Hazevellen Drie joodse kooplieden Three Jewish merchants Painting of three Jewish hareskin dealers talking face to face
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 24.875 inches (63.183 cm) | Width: 20.500 inches (52.07 cm) | Depth: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 19.375 inches (49.213 cm) | Width: 15.000 inches (38.1 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 painting 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
Oil painting of three Jewish hareskin dealers. The image depicts the men with stereotypically hooked noses, hooded eyes, beards, and pointed teeth. The scene, possibly based on a Dutch folktale about three Jewish hareskin dealers who swindle a miserly farmer, can be traced back to the lithographic printing firm of Johan Martin Billroth, which opened in 1829 in Groningen, Netherlands. This image was popular in northern Europe in the early 19th century and was reproduced in various mediums. The painting is one of 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
Oil on canvas painting depicting three tightly grouped men in conversation, from the waist up. The diminutive man on the left is in right profile facing the man in left profile on the right, and they point at each other with extended index fingers. Their faces frame that of the center man, who has a large nose and eyes that look to the right. They wear tricorn hats, spectacles, and collarless brown jackets with large white and yellow buttons. The man on the left has a walking stick, and a long, sloped nose. The man on the right has a large, hooked nose, and carries a sack over his shoulder. They all smile at each other with hooded eyes, and have trimmed beards and sideburns. In the background is a blue sky filled with white and blue clouds. On the right side is a tall, dark brown and green tree with an overhanging leafy top and foliage around the trunk. In the right background are the leafy branches of a tree. The gilt wooden frame has 3 stacked borders with carved foliage on the inner and outer edges and an open back.
back, top, on frame, handwritten, pencil and partially crossed out with red ink : #2662 P2E2
Subjects
- Jews in art--Netherlands--19th century.
- Jewish peddlers--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Jewish merchants--Pictorial works.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons--19th century.
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art.
- Netherlands.
- Jewish merchants--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Jews--Folk art.
- Jewish peddlers--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism in art--Netherlands--19th century.
Genre
- Object
- Art
- Oil Paintings.