View of Haifa – Watercolor by Julius Rothschild (1885-1954) – Haifa, 1915

View of Haifa – Watercolor by Julius Rothschild (1885-1954) – Haifa, 1915
View of Haifa, a painting by Julius Rothschild (1885-1954), the first painting teacher at the Bezalel Academy of Art. Haifa, 1915.
Watercolor on thick paper. Signed and dated: "Julius J. Rothschild / Haifa, 1915".
The painting depicts a caravan of camels at the seashore with the homes of Haifa in the background. The Technion is seen on the left, in its first location in the Hadar HaCarmel neighborhood.
Julius Jotham Rothschild (1885-1954) was born in Germany, studied architecture and interior design in Berlin, and completed his art studies in Weimar in 1905. He came to Palestine in 1906, together with Boris Schatz and Ephraim Moses Lilien, and was the first painting teacher in the Bezalel Academy of Art, which was founded that year. Following complaints by students about his professional level, Rothschild was fired from Bezalel after one year, and returned to Germany together with his wife Frieda Kaminitz (daughter of Eliezer Lipman Kaminitz, owner of Kaminitz hotel in Jerusalem).
Rothschild returned to Palestine in 1913, after studying architecture in Germany, and worked as a draftsman for the archaeological delegation for the excavations in the Ophel. Later on he moved to Haifa and assisted in the construction of the Technion, where he worked as a teacher. During World War I, the Ottoman government placed him in charge of restoring ancient tombstones in Palestine and in Syria, and after the war he worked as an archaeologist at various sites in Palestine.
For more information about Rothschild see: Lavi Shay and Tina Yankelevich, "Portrait of a Yekke from the Second Aliya". In Et-Mol 194 (2007) [Hebrew].
54X29 cm. Good condition. Paper slightly darkened. Stains. A few tears at the left edge (small, not affecting painting).
Provenance: Rimon Family Collection.