Learning Companions ("Havruta") – Watercolor by the Artist Joachim Kahane (1890-1943) – Poland, 1931

Three Jews Studying together, watercolor by Joachim Kahane (Ząbki, Poland, 1890 – Lodz Ghetto, 1943?). [Lodz], 1931.
Watercolor on paper. Signed and dated. A piece of cardboard is pasted to the back of the painting's frame with the printed caption: "Wystawa Prac Kahanego Joachima" [Polish: "Exhibition of works by Joachim Kahane"]. An additional inscription by hand appears below the caption, in Polish.
Polish painter and sculptor Joachim Kahane studied architecture and painting in Lvov and in Vienna. In 1910 was one of the founders of the "Circle of Jewish Art Enthusiasts" in Lvov – a circle that aimed to promote and preserve Jewish art, and in the framework of this circle he organized exhibitions, drawing and sculpting lessons and lectures about Jewish Art History. In 1919 Kahane was appointed president of the circle, and two years later he moved to Lodz, where he worked as an art teacher in a Jewish school. In the 1920 and 1930s his works were displayed in a number of exhibitions in Poland. Over the years Kahane abandoned painting in favor of sculpting and created mainly metal reliefs. Numerous works created by him depicted biblical or Jewish themes. Kahane perished in the holocaust, in the Lodz Ghetto, in ca. 1943.
21.5X13 cm, framed: 31X22.5 cm. Good overall condition. Unexamined out of frame.