|
|
Ad Code: 4
|
An example of work by Saul Bernstein
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
|
|
|
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  The following is submitted by Joseph Messer, Alachua, Florida.
"While researching this artist I located a short biography of Berstein attached to a painting in the Baltimore Museum of Art collection. The description reads as follows":
"SAUL BERNSTEIN
American 1872-1905
Self Portrait
1904
Oil on Canvas
A native of Lithuania, Bernstein arrived penniless in the United States at the age of sixteen. He began to paint while employed as a clerk in a general store in West Virginia and later studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and at the Art Students League in New York. While in Paris to complete his training at the Academie Julian, two of his paintings were accepted for exhibition at the annual Salon.
Bernstein worked in the Netherlands before returning to Baltimore in 1903 where he opened a studio. Depressed by poor health, however, he took his own life while still in his thirties. Bernstein specialized in interior scenes and in figure studies; his work is ofter marked by a certain poignancy.
The Baltimore Museum of art: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Michael A. Abrams, BMA 1955.186 "
The "Baltimore Sun" has recently featured an article mentioning Bernstein as a character in Caitlin Bell's one act play "Three Jewish Lives". The article is as follows:
"Caitlin Bell acknowledges that the three historic Baltimore figures on whom she based on her one-act play, "Three Jewish Lives", may have never been in the same place at the same time.
But there were connections. Ella Gutman Hutzler - daughter of one Baltimore department store owner and wife of another - knew Henrietta Szold, who founded Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Szold, in turn, was a mentor and mother figure to Russian-born artist Saul Bernstein.
One night in November 1901, Szold had a showing of Bernstein's paintings at her Lombard Street home. Ella Hutzler's husband, David, bought one of the paintings. "Saul was studying in Paris at the time, but because his work was here, we took creative license and brought him back from Paris for one evening," explains Bell, a local playwright and arts educator.
Produced by the Jewish Museum of Maryland, "Three Jewish Lives" will be performed there at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Feb. 24. Because of Bernstein's background, the museum is billing the show as its contribution to Baltimore's Vivat! St. Petersburg festival. The cast consists of Bell's mother, Tana Hicken, in the role of Szold; Marsha Becker as Hutzler; and Joseph Corgan as Bernstein. Direction is by Bell and Harriet Lynn.
The impetus for Three Lives came from several separate impulses. The first was a walking tour of Baltimore's former department store district, led by Lynn, in the guise of Ella Hutzler. Conducted in October 2001 and April 2002 for the Jewish Museum, the tour was a typical project for Lynn, who heads the Baltimore-based Heritage Theater Artists' Consortium, which specializes in living history and museum theater.
In the course of her research, Lynn found herself increasingly drawn to Hutzler's contemporary, Szold, and she approached the museum about doing a project about the Baltimore-born Zionist leader.
Meanwhile, as part of its educational outreach, the museum had developed a trunk show about Bernstein that traveled to schools. "Inside the trunk were curricula to study his work," Bell says, "and they wanted to add a living history piece - an actor."
"Serendipity" is the word Lynn uses to describe the eventual blending of Bernstein, Szold and Hutzler's stories in Three Lives. Most of the research was conducted at the museum, whose archives include extensive correspondence between Szold and Bernstein.
Bell also finds the juxtaposition of Hutzler and Bernstein's lives dramatically rich. "[Hutzler's] normalcy with regard to the play makes it very interesting. Her life is very peaceful when you hold it up to Saul's, which is very complex, running from his homeland to America and feeling very displaced and homeless and alienated," she explains.
The museum has sent fliers about the show to Baltimore city and county schools, and Lynn hopes it will also find audiences at community centers and synagogues.
It's already prompted one unexpected but very welcome response. The museum was recently contacted by Bernstein's grandson, Peter, who learned about the project through the Internet. Bell and Lynn spent a day at his Alexandria, Va., home last week. Besides seeing examples of Saul Bernstein's artwork, they were shown family photographs and additional letters.
Bell had thought her research was complete. But now, she says, "This play could certainly have an Act 2."
|
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|