The Hecht Museum's art collection consists of two main groups.
The largest of which represents some of the important styles of French art, created from the 1830s to the 1830s; The other group includes mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century Jewish art.
Both groups clearly reflect the two main areas of interest of the late Dr. Reuben Hecht.

B. Odessa, 1862 - d. Oxford, 1945

Vase with Yellowish and Red Roses, 1932, oil on canvas Vase with Yellowish and Red Roses, 1932, oil on canvas Leonid Pasternak, a painter and graphic artist, was born to a Jewish family in Odessa. He studied in an Odessa drawing school, then at the University of Moscow and the Academy of Art in Munich. In 1905, he became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. He moved to Berlin in 1921.

(Paul Gachet) b. Lille, 1828 - d. Auvers-sur-Oise, 1909
View of a Village, 1904, oil on canvas View of a Village, 1904, oil on canvas

Paul van Ryssel was the pen name of Dr. Paul Gachet. Gachet became involved with art at a young age and frequently practiced painting and engraving throughout his youth. He exhibited his work, especially his etchings, in the Salon des Independants. Gachet was enthusiastic about impressionistic art and worked among artists such as Pissarro and Cezzane. Gachet greatly admired Van Gogh, and the two became well acquainted. It was Gachet who attended Van Gogh in his final days.





B. Dvinsk, 1883 - d. Jerusalem, 1964

The Birth Bed, from “The Jug of Tears”, 1926,  lithographThe Birth Bed, from “The Jug of Tears”, 1926, lithographPainter, pastellist, lithographer, and caricaturist, Abel Pann was born to a religious family in Dvinsk. His father was a Rabbi and head of a Yeshiva. Pann showed interest in art from an early age and went on to study in Odessa, Vienna, and Paris.

B. Hannover, 1867 - d. Berlin, 1929

Synagogue – Interior  or Stibel in Hungary, oil on canvasSynagogue – Interior or Stibel in Hungary, oil on canvasErnst Oppler was the son of a prominent Jewish architect and his family was well-known in the artistic cirlces of Germany. He studied in Munich and worked for some time in England and Holland, where he painted elegant portraits of the gentry in subdued tones. In the 1920s he worked again in Germany, and gained recognition and popularity as a master of brushwork and etching.


B. Paris, 1840 - d. Giverny, 1926

Giverny Landscape, Snow Effect, 1886, oil on canvas Giverny Landscape, Snow Effect, 1886, oil on canvas Claude Monet studied at the Académie Suisse and then at the studio of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Frederic Bazille, August Renoir and Alfred Sisley. The first painting he sent to the Salon in 1868 was accepted, but in 1869 his works were refused. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Monet went to London, where he joined Sisley, Pissarro and Daubigny and was introduced to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. In London this group discovered the art of Constable and Turner.

B. Bordeaux, 1875 - d. Paris, 1947

Le Pont Neuf (The New Bridge), 1935, oil on canvas Le Pont Neuf (The New Bridge), 1935, oil on canvasAlbert Marquet is a noted French landscape painter of the first half of the twentieth century. He studied at the famous atelier of Gustave Moreaux. In 1905, he participated with Matisse and others in the first Fauve exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants, and his paintings were among the boldest shown. Marquet, though, was not concerned with boldness as much as with solidity of forms and harmony of tones.

B. Paris, 1858 - d. Paris, 1941

“La Fossette” (Saint Clair), 1903-1905, oil on canvas“La Fossette” (Saint Clair), 1903-1905, oil on canvasMaximilien Luce, a French painter and lithographer, studied under Carolus Duran in Paris. In 1886, he joined the Neo-Impressionists and from 1887 exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, of which he was a co-founder with Seurat and Signac. Luce often painted urban landscapes. He tried to represent light by using the principle of divided colors, but he did not have the disposition for the meticulous, painstaking procedure of pointillism, and he gradually resorted to a more Impressionist technique.

b. Paris, 1865 - d. Paris, 1935

Herrings, oil on cardboard mounted on canvas Herrings, oil on cardboard mounted on canvas Gustave Loiseau was a self-taught artist. At the age of twenty, he began painting watercolor copies of popular prints. Starting in 1890, Loiseau spent a few summers with Gauguin in the countryside of Pont-Aven, but his own work from this period shows no influence of Gauguin's "syntheticism." In 1895, he adopted Impressionist techniques.


b. Berlin, 1847 - d. Berlin, 1935

Max Liebermann, a German painter and graphic artist, came from a family of Berlin Jewish industrialists. He studied art in Berlin and Weimar, and later traveled to Paris and Barbizon for prolonged stays. He was also influenced by Dutch art, which affected the course of his development as an artist. In the 1890s, Liebermann's palette became brighter, and his paintings evidenced a new unity of tone and color. Though he was considered to be the most distinguished exponent of Impressionism in Germany, he never regarded himself as an Impressionist. His mature style, which was rather Nordic in conception, was quite unlike that of the French.

B. Paris, 1804 - d. Lagny, 1886

Landscape with a Bridge, oil on wood Landscape with a Bridge, oil on wood Eugene Isabey, a French genre and landscape painter, is considered a charming minor master of the Romantic period. His first landscapes were exhibited at the 
Salon in 1824. Isabey's later watercolors influenced the Impressionists. 


 

B. Livorno, 1884 - d. Paris, 1920

Portrait of Maud Abrantes, 1908 oil on canvas, Verso of Nude with a HatPortrait of Maud Abrantes, 1908 oil on canvas, Verso of Nude with a HatModigliani was born in Livorno, Italy, into a family of Sephardic Jews who had little money but a rich cultural life. When he arrived in Paris at the age of 22, he had had eight years of academic training behind him, and possessed a great respect for the old masters and a passionate interest in literature, especially poetry.

B. Paris, 1832 - d. Paris, 1883

Head of an old Woman  or Woman with a White Head-dress, 1856, oil on canvasHead of an old Woman or Woman with a White Head-dress, 1856, oil on canvasÉdouard Manet, a major French master of the 19th century, studied for six years at the École des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Thomas Couture. Manet graduated in 1856. He had a decisive preference for Old Masters and modern life, and gradually introduced modern aesthetics and bold techniques into his paintings. He replaced the tonal gradations of academic practice with vivid contrasts of colors. The Impressionists greatly admired him for his ability to free himself from conventions of literary and moral statements and for his bright colors.

B. Cuisaux, 1868 - d. La Baule, 1940

The Absinth Drinker, ca.1902, oil on cardboard mounted on canvasThe Absinth Drinker, ca.1902, oil on cardboard mounted on canvasEdouard Vuillard was a major figure in the Nabis group, who at the end of the nineteenth century sought to combine the bent, undulating line of Art-Nouveau with the Impressionist color scheme. Vuillard was particularly fascinated with the linear quality and flat tones characteristic of Japanese prints.

B. Ghent, 1862 - d. Saint Claire, Provence, 1926


Landscape, ca.1880-1885, oil on canvasLandscape, ca.1880-1885, oil on canvasVan Rysselberghe was a Belgian painter and founder of Les Vingt, a body of twenty artists formed in Belgium in 1883 to encourage interest in innovative art. In the mid 1880s, he met Seurat and adopted divisionism, and in 1898 he moved to Paris, where he became associated with Symbolist circles.



B. Paris, 1883 - d. Paris, 1935

Place du Tertre, oil on canvas Place du Tertre, oil on canvas Maurice Utrillo, a French master of the early 20th century, took up painting in an attempt to cure himself of alcoholism on the advice of his mother, Suzanne Valodon, a painter of importance herself. In 1909, following seven years of hard work, Utrillo attained his own unmistakable style of simplified, firm construction and quiet, lyrical color. He became an ardent chronicler of bohemian and proletarian Paris, its solitude, and emotional emptiness. The work of Utrillo, an original, poetic master, does not fit into any style and resists all categorization.

B. Birnbaum, 1866 - d. Berlin, 1931


 Jeremiah, charcoal on paper Jeremiah, charcoal on paperUry Lesser was a German-Jewish painter who was born in Prussia. At the age of 12, he ran away from home to escape the poverty-stricken life of his family and became apprenticed to a clothing merchant in Berlin. After saving enough money, he went to study art in Dusseldorf, Brussels, and Paris. He won a prize awarded by the Berlin Academy of Art, which enabled him to study in Italy.

Struck Hermann

B. Berlin, 1876 - d. Haifa, 1944

Study of Baertiger's Head, Front 1909Study of Baertiger's Head, Front 1909Hermann Struck, painter and engraver, was born into a wealthy Orthodox Jewish family in Berlin. He was introduced to the art of etching, at which he excelled, by Hans Meyer at the Berlin Academy of Art and it soon became his favorite technique. In 1900, Struck traveled to Holland, where he studied with Jozef Israels. He became a Zionist at an early age, was one of the founders of "Hamizrachi" movement, and was active in the Zionist movement throughout his life.

b. Zerkow, Poland, 1887 - d. Jerusalem, 1968

Blessing of the Moon, 1920, oil on canvasBlessing of the Moon, 1920, oil on canvasJacob Steinhardt, who became a well-known Israeli painter and printmaker, left his native Poland in 1906 to study in Berlin, first at the Museum of Arts and Crafts and then under the engraver Hermann Struck. He also studied in Paris under Laurens and Matisse, who apparently had a minor influence on his style.

B. Breslau, Germany, 1874 - d. New York, 1972

Garden Near Italian Lake, Garden Near Italian Lake, 1931, oil on canvasGarden Near Italian Lake, Garden Near Italian Lake, 1931, oil on canvasEugen Spiro was born into the family of a cantor in Breslau. He studied art under Franz von Stuck in Munich, was greatly influenced by Jugendstil, and participated in the Secession exhibitions. He lived in Paris from 1906 and taught at the Acad?mie Moderne. In 1914, as a citizen of an enemy state, he had to return to Germany, and for some time worked as a draftsman for a cartographic unit of the German Army. After the war, he taught art in Germany until 1933. Not being allowed to paint and exhibit in Germany, he returned to Paris. In 1940, following the Nazi occupation of France, he went into hiding and subsequently escaped to the United States where he taught painting.



B. Smilovichi, near Smolensk, 1893 - d. Paris, 1943
Path in Forest with Two Children, oil on canvasPath in Forest with Two Children, oil on canvas


Soutine, a French painter of Jewish origin, came from an extremely poor family. At the age of 13, he ran away to Minsk, where he took a few drawing lessons. In 1910, he went to study art in Vilna, where he worked for a living in a photography shop. Through the help of a patron, he moved to Paris in 1913, and began to study art under Fernand Cormon at the École des Beaux-Arts.

B. Paris, 1840 - d. Moret-sur-Loing, 1899

The Seine at Marly, 1873, oil on canvasThe Seine at Marly, 1873, oil on canvasAlfred Sisley, a French landscape master, came from an English family who resided in Paris. He studied under Charles Gleyre at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he became friendly with Jean-Frederic Bazille, Claude Monet, and August Renoir. All four artists left the school in 1863 and worked together at Chailly in the forest of Fontainebleau. In 1866, Sisley exhibited at the Salon for the first time, but his work was refused the following year.

B. Paris, 1863 - d. Finistere, 1927

Still Life with Onions (1896)Still Life with Onions (1896)Serusier, a French artist and art theoretician, studied at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1888, he stayed in Pont-Aven, where he met Gaugin. Back in Paris, he formed the Nabis, a group of artists who combined Symbolist aesthetics with Art Nouveau undulating lines and Impressionist colors. Due to his theoretical inclinations, Sérusier was more conscious of his attitude toward pictorial structure than others in the group.

B. Fresne-Saint Marne, 1851 - d. Paris, 1934

 Landscape with Lake and Red Trees, oil on canvas Landscape with Lake and Red Trees, oil on canvas
 
In the history of art, Schuffenecker is better known as the admirer, confidant, and protector of Paul Gauguin than as a painter. 
Nonetheless, contrary to what might be expected, he was not a follower of Gauguin and the Pont-Aven school.

B. Eisabetgrad, Ukraine, 1897 - d. Paris, 1934

The Mother-in-law from “Jews of Ukraine”, 1924, lithographThe Mother-in-law from “Jews of Ukraine”, 1924, lithographIssachar Ryback, a 20th-century Jewish artist, was born in a stetl in the Ukraine. In 1917, his father was murdered during a pogrom there. Throughout his life, Ryback was deeply committed to Jewish culture. While still an art student in Kiev, he participated in folklore expeditions along the Dnieper to research traditional Jewish art, including wooden synagogues, gravestone carvings, and decorative ceremonial and home objects.

b. St. Thomas, Caribbean Islands, 1830 - d. Paris, 1903

Corner in the Garden, Snow, Éragny, 1892,  oil on canvas

Pissarro, a French master of Jewish origin, was sent as a young man to study business in Paris, but he was more interested in art and therefore enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in 1855. Later, he studied at the Académie Suisse in Paris, where he met Paul Cézanne. Pissarro also took lessons from Camille Corot, who exerted a strong influence on his painting. In 1870, he was in London, where he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who later supported the Impressionists and became Pissarro's patron and dealer. In 1874, Pissarro took part in the first exhibition of the group that was later called the Impressionists. He was the most steadfast of all its members, the only one to take part in all of the eight exhibitions of the group.

B. Kovno, 1860 - d. Moscow, 1900

Landscape, ca.1887-1888, oil on paper mounted on cardboard Landscape, ca.1887-1888, oil on paper mounted on cardboard Isaak Levitan, a painter of lyrical landscapes, studied under Alexei Savrosov and Vassili Polenov in Moscow. He started exhibiting his work in Russia in 1874 and thereafter in Munich, Berlin, and Paris. In 1892, when he was already a well-known painter, he barely escaped banishment from Moscow for being a Jew. Levitan started as a realist. His later work acquired a plaintive mood and his most remarkable works suggest philosophical and musical associations.




B. Caen, 1835 - d. Paris, 1892

Landscape with River, oil on cardboard mounted on canvas Landscape with River, oil on cardboard mounted on canvas Stanislas Lépine was a self-taught painter whose art developed under the influence of Corot and Daubigny. He was one of the first French artists to paint directly from nature. He was especially attracted to the banks of the Seine and its tributaries. Lépine's attention to light and atmosphere anticipate Impressionism, although his light brushwork and soft coloring are far removed from the Impressionist's bold approach to color. In 1874, Lépine took part in an exhibition that was later called The First Impressionist Exhibition.

B. Monfort-sur-Risle, 1849 - d. Rouen, 1928

Seine, oil on canvas Seine, oil on canvas Lebourg, a French landscape master, studied in Rouen and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He painted in Auvergne, Normandy, and in the Seine Valley, where he attempted to render the "infinite charm" of the light of Ile de France. From 1872 to 1877 he taught and painted in Algiers. In 1878, after his return to Paris, he exhibited with the Impressionists, and from 1890 on, he exhibited at the Salon de la Nationale. Lebourg's work was very well-received in his lifetime, but unfortunately he became paralyzed and in 1921 stopped painting.



Born in Quimper, 1876 - died in Drancy, 1944

Montmartre, 1931, gouache and colored chalk crayon on paperMontmartre, 1931, gouache and colored chalk crayon on paperMax Jacob, a French Jew, was a painter, a poet, a novelist, a playwright, and a critic, who played an important role in the formative years of Cubism as well as in thenew directions of modern poetry during the early 20th century. His poetry was made up of an amalgam of Jewish, Breton, Parisian, and Roman-Catholic elements. The poet Carl Palme vividly remembers how "...red- haired Max Jacob leapt on a table, tilted his bowler hat, put his thumb in his vest, and recited a satirical poem whistling and dancing a jig between verses.

b. Groningen, 1824 - d. Hague, 1911

Self-portrait, 1903, oil on canvasSelf-portrait, 1903, oil on canvas


Josef Israels was a Dutch Jewish painter born to the family of a money changer. He studied art with Cornelius Cruseman in Amsterdam and at the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he, like others, learned to copy old masters' paintings in the Louvre. Under the guidance of Ary Sheffer, he executed a number of Biblical scenes in the Romantic style. While in Paris he also became acquainted with the Barbizon School. In 1847 Israels returned to Holland, where he painted portraits and historical subjects and frequently reverted to Jewish themes.

B. Le Havre, 1879 - d. Le Havre, 1949

Trees and Bushes in Green, oil on canvasTrees and Bushes in Green, oil on canvasFriesz, a French painter, studied under Pierre Bonnard in Paris. In 1905-1906, he exhibited with the Fauves, and later he came under the influence of Cézanne and the Cubists. He painted landscapes, still lifes, and figure compositions, and worked for the theater.

B. Bordeaux, 1808 - d. Mentnon, 1876


The Forest of Barbizon, oil on canvas The Forest of Barbizon, oil on canvas Diaz de la Peňa, a French painter of Spanish origin, began his career as a porcelain painter in a china factory. He was fond of Corregio and Delacroix. For some time he worked with Millet and he is known to have said that while Millet painted nettles, he preferred to paint roses. Diaz was a born colorist and was keen on unusual lighting. His works were much admired by Renoir and ot her Impressionists.

B. Paris, 1796 - d. Paris, 1875
Ponds in Ville d'Avray, oil on paper mounted on canvasPonds in Ville d'Avray, oil on paper mounted on canvas


Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, a 19th century French master of landscape painting, studied under Jean Victor Bertin at the ?cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His greatest teacher was, however, nature, particularly Ile-de-France and the surroundings of Paris. On his visits to Italy in the late 1820s, Corot discovered the effects of clear and bright light, but back in France he resumed painting the dawns and twilights of Ille-de-France. In his notebook, Corot wrote about his guiding principles, including this injunction:

B. Gourenay, 1848 - d. Paris, 1906


Maternity, Woman and Child, oil on canvasMaternity, Woman and Child, oil on canvasEugène Carrière, a French painter and lithographer, studied under Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He painted maternity themes and portraits, and made decorative pictures. Carrière's aim was to express a superior reality, the world of ideas, by using the smallest possible number of lines and colors. In his lifetime, he enjoyed success as his works attracted literary-minded spectators.

B. Paris, 1848 - d. Gennevilliers, 1894

Bouquet de Chrysanthèmes, 1893, oil on canvas Bouquet de Chrysanthèmes, 1893, oil on canvas
Gustave Caillebotte, the scion of a wealthy family, was a painter and a financial supporter of the Impressionists. He studied art in Paris under the academician Léon-Joseph Bonnat. After his work was rejected by the "Salon" jury in 1875, he joined the Impressionist group. Caillebotte had a penchant for realism and unusual space construction. In 1888, he settled in Petit Gennevillier on the Seine, where Monet lived. The two artists shared a passion for gardening and flowers. In 1893, the year before he died, Caillebotte exhibited some 26 of his flower and flower bed pictures, decorative panels, and still lifes at the Windenstein Gallery.

B. Plonsk, 1880 - d. Jerusalem, 1940

Day of Atonement Eve, 1931, watercolors Day of Atonement Eve, 1931, watercolors


Jozef Budko received a traditional Jewish education in his youth and later studied art in Vilna and Berlin under Franz von Stuck. He immigrated to Palestine in 1933, and was appointed director of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1935. Budko created many illustrations for prayer books and for the literary works of Ch.N. Bialik, Y. L. Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem. In his artwork, Budko revived the decorative and symbolic values of Hebrew letters. 

B. Honfleur, 1824 - d. Deauville, 1898

La Moullière à Villerville, 1893, oil on canvasLa Moullière à Villerville, 1893, oil on canvasEugène Boudin, one of the most important masters of 19th-century French landscape painting, is considered a link between the Barbizon school and Impressionism. By the 1860s, Boudin was an accomplished plein-air painter. He had developed a technique of short, quick brush strokes, with an occasional flicker of light and color, that became the basis for his work during the remainder of his career. In its rendition of nature and its tactile qualities, his work is reminiscent of Courbet's.

B. Lille, 1864 - d. Paris, 1941

The Bridge at Asnières, 1887, oil on canvas The Bridge at Asnières, 1887, oil on canvas Emile Bernard, a French painter, poet, and art critic, studied in the studio of Fernand Cormon in Paris. He was a distinguished painter with an avid interest in experimentation. His correspondence with Van Gogh, Gaughin, Cézanne, and Odilon Redon was invaluable to the history of modern art.

B. Naumestis, Lithuania, 1900 - d. California, 1974

Old Woman with Hat Dressed in Black, oil on canvasOld Woman with Hat Dressed in Black, oil on canvasMax Band, a Lithuanian-born Jewish painter, studied in Berlin in 1923 and later moved to Paris. He exhibited his works in Berlin, Paris, Kaunas (Lithuania), London, Amsterdam, and Geneva. In 1940, he went to the United States, where he taught art in California. His manner of painting almost never changed from the 1930s.

B. Criquetot-sur-Quville, 1854 - d. Rouen, 1926


Water, Boat and River Bank, oil on canvas Water, Boat and River Bank, oil on canvas Charles Angrand, a French painter, studied in Rouen and Paris. He exhibited in the first Salon des Ind?pendants in 1884, and made his name known after the group exhibition in 1886. During his lifetime, he exhibited not only paintings but also pastels. Angrand adopted Seurat's divisionism, a systematic, scientific method using the technique of pointillism, i.e., application of unmixed pigments juxtaposed in dots.