William Weintraub, Middle Eastern Expressionist Oil Painting, 1961

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William (Sunny) Weintraub, Israeli (Born 1926)
Oil on masonite
William Weintraub (He was also known as Shlomo Weintraub and nicknamed … Read more William (Sunny) Weintraub, Israeli (Born 1926)
Oil on masonite
William Weintraub (He was also known as Shlomo Weintraub and nicknamed Sonny Weintraub)
Genre: Impressionist
Subject: Portrait
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Dimensions: framed 29 X 21.5. sight 26.5 X 18.5

In an ever-changing art world that embraces one movement after the next, the timeless art of portraiture can become lost. Portraiture is often associated with the royal paintings of centuries-old French kings, European nobility, and other wealthy individuals from art history's past. However, styles like Social Realism and Dutch genre painting spotlighted everyday people and made them powerful subjects for portraiture. Rather than illuminating jewels, thrones, and fine regalia, artists painted the natural beauty of a working woman or the quiet sadness of an impoverished child. Artist William Weintraub approaches his work in a manner reminiscent of the first Social Realists when capturing his subjects, the vibrant and intriguing people of Israel. Judaica Israeli master. Born in 1926 in Baltimore, Maryland, artist William Weintraub studied art at the Maryland Institute of Art. While attending, he had the opportunity to study under the artist Jacques Maroger who also served as the technical director for the Louvre Museum's laboratory in Paris. In 1944, two years after completing his studies, Weintraub joined the U.S. Merchant Marines and traveled to Europe and the Mediterranean as a radio officer on American merchant ships. After World War II, Weintraub joined the rescue fleet known as Aliyah Bet that brought Holocaust survivors from Europe to Palestine. These trips proved critical for his art because of the wealth of subjects and inspiration available to him. In 1947, he joined the SS Hatikva crew and helped move Jewish refugees from Europe to the Palestinian area. When the ship was obstructed from its next destination, Weintraub was held at a detention camp in Cyprus. In 1948, Weintraub fought in Israel’s War of Independence and after the war, he joined the Israeli Merchant Navy. In 1955, Weintraub left the merchant navy and settled in Tel Aviv. Weintraub set up a studio and devoted himself to painting. Feeling at home, he decided to devote all his time toward art and began to craft his signature portraits of Israeli people and life. By 1955, he began crafting a large catalog of paintings and lithographs depicting people at work, children at play, and contemplative elderly citizens of Israel. Rather than creating formal portraits, his subjects feel like quick, sudden snapshots in time or moments frozen in a glimpse. In 1956, with the encouragement of friends, and later his wife Hagar who grew up on Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, who loved his paintings, he exchanged his ship's cabin for an artist's studio. During his career as an artist, Weintraub gained widespread recognition for his phenomenal portrait paintings. The paintings show Israeli children, Rabbis, Arabs, Bedouins in traditional dress, engaged in their daily activities. These works are reminiscent of the 17th century Dutch genre scenes with elements of Social Realism.
Weintraub had a penchant for depicting the lives of anonymous yet intriguing citizens, and these works served as a reminder of their importance to Israel. Weintraub did, however, immortalize famous Israeli figures in his paintings as well. The piece David Ben-Gurion is a classically painted portrait of the Israeli statesman who became the first Prime Minister of Israel. Executed in fine detail, the painting possesses a limited color palette of rusted shades and ivory. Even though Weintraub has little recognition in the U.S., he's quite renowned in Israel and has been exhibiting since the 1950s. He showed at Safrai Gallery in Jerusalem along with the other Judaica and Bezalel Artists such as Abel Pann, Mordecai Ardon, Moshe Castel, Shmuel Katz, Naftali Bezem, Reuven Rubin, and Yosl Bergner. See less