Name Julius Rosenbaum (1879-1956)
Born Neuenbürg, Germany
Died The Hague, Netherlands
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Date 1945
Object type painting
Medium oil on canvas
Materials and techniques oil (medium) canvas (support)
Unframed 80 x 52 cm
Framed 89 x 62 cm
Signed (lower left) 'Julius Rosenbaum'
Acquisition presented by Dr. Alec Lerner and Lord Marks, 1950
Accession number 1987-341
Display status not on display
The sitter, Charlotte Melnikov (née Nissen), wife of Russian-born sculptor, Avram Melnikov, was also a painter and exhibited a still life of tulips at Ben Uri's Spring Exhibition by Contemporary Jewish Artists in 1948. Julius Rosenbaum's wife Adele Reifenberg also painted Charlotte, probably in the same sitting, since she wears the same outfit with a canary yellow cardigan and red, patterned scarf in both portraits which were exhibited together at Ben Uri in 1950.
Rosenbaum worked in a realistic expressive style and one reviewer (Barbara Wright, Arts Review, 14.10.57) remarked of his 1957 Memorial exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery that there was 'no gaiety' in his work - which she attributed to his experience as a refugee. His 'Portrait of Charlotte' challenges this assertion since inspite of the sitter's unsmiling expression, the bold palette and expressive brushstrokes conjur a lively presence.
1950
Paintings, Drawings etc., by Julius Rosenbaum 1903-1949, Adele Reifenberg 1915-1949, Ruth Collet (Recent Work)
Ben Uri Gallery
1957
Julius Rosenbaum 1879-1956 Memorial Exhibition
Ben Uri Art Gallery
1970
Paintings from the Ben Uri Art Gallery
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum
1980
Exhibition of Selected Works from the Permanent Collection of the Ben Uri Art Gallery
Ben Uri Gallery
2009
Homeless & Hidden 2: World Class Collection Homeless & Hidden
Ben Uri Gallery
2017
Refugees: The Lives of Others - German Refugee Artists to the UK
Ben Uri Gallery and Museum
2018
Finchleystrasse: German artists in exile in Great Britain and beyond 1933-45
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London (Department of Culture and Education)
2019
Migrations: masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection
Gloucester Museum
'Finchleystrasse: German artists in exile in Great Britain and beyond 1933-45' (London: Ben Uri Gallery and Museum in association with the German Embassy London, 2018), p. 43.; Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Camden (London: The Public Catalogue Foundation, 2013); Walter Schwab and Julia Weiner, eds., Jewish Artists: the Ben Uri Collection - Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture (London: Ben Uri Art Society in association with Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, 1994), p. 89.
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