Maurycy Gottlieb (1856 Drohobych - 1879 Krakow), Recha, 1877.

Scene from "Natan the Wise," a drama by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
oil, canvas pasted on cardboard, 29 × 20 cm
Signed p. d.: "M. G."

Provenance:
- Sotheby's auction house, Jerusalem, May 1985
- Collection of Jacob and Asei Furman, Santiago, Chile
- MatsArt Auctioneers & Appraisers, November 2008
- Louiza Auktion, Brussels, June and December 2012
- MatsArt Auctioneers & Appraisers Jerusalem, January 2014
- private collection, Poland

Exhibited at:
- The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, May-July 1991
- The National Museum in Warsaw, August - October 1991

Described and reproduced:
- Karol Bernhaut, "Maurycy Gottlieb. 1856-1879. 39 Reproductions of the
artist's paints", Tel-Aviv 1961, plate 60.
- Nehama Guralnik, "In the Flower of Youth. Maurycy Gotlieb 1856-1879", [exhibition cat.; V - VII 1991], Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, National Museum in Warsaw, Tel-Aviv 1991, p. 155, cat. no. 29
- Jerzy Malinowski, "Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1878", exhibition catalog, National Museum in Warsaw, VIII - X 1991, p. nlb., cat. no. 22
- Jacobo Furman, "Treasures of Jewish Art: From the Jacobo and Asea Furman Collection of Judaica", New York 1998, p. 263
- Jerzy Malinowski, "Maurycy Gotlieb - Welcome...,". D.A. Agra-Art, Warsaw 1999, p. nlb., il. nlb. 9

Provenance:
- Sotheby's auction house, Jerusalem, May 1985
- Collection of Jacob and Asei Furman, Santiago, Chile
- MatsArt Auctioneers & Appraisers, November 2008
- Louiza Auktion, Brussels, June and December 2012
- MatsArt Auctioneers & Appraisers Jerusalem, January 2014
- private collection, Poland

Exhibited at:
- The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, May-July 1991
- The National Museum in Warsaw, August - October 1991

Described and reproduced:
- Karol Bernhaut, "Maurycy Gottlieb. 1856-1879. 39 Reproductions of the
artist's paints", Tel-Aviv 1961, plate 60.
- Nehama Guralnik, "In the Flower of Youth. Maurycy Gotlieb 1856-1879", [exhibition cat.; V - VII 1991], Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, National Museum in Warsaw, Tel-Aviv 1991, p. 155, cat. no. 29
- Jerzy Malinowski, "Maurycy Gottlieb 1856-1878", exhibition catalog, National Museum in Warsaw, VIII - X 1991, p. nlb., cat. no. 22
- Jacobo Furman, "Treasures of Jewish Art: From the Jacobo and Asea Furman Collection of Judaica", New York 1998, p. 263
- Jerzy Malinowski, "Maurycy Gotlieb - Welcome...,". D.A. Agra-Art, Warsaw 1999, p. nlb., il. nlb. 9

The painting by Maurycy Gottlieb Rech, presented at auction, is one of the sketches for a series the artist prepared as illustrations for the drama "Natan the Wise Man," written by the prominent German playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781).

"Natan the Wise Man" is set in Jerusalem around 1193, during the turbulent times of the Crusader Wars, at the meeting point of disparate cultures and religions - Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. It is the story of a noble Jerusalem Jew, Natan, who took care of a Christian girl, Recha, and raised her like a daughter, despite the fact that it was Christians who had previously slaughtered his family. Returning from a distant journey, Natan learned of a fire that haunted his home, from which Recha was rescued by a young knight-templar. A feeling arose between the young couple; in the course of events, however, it turned out that they were both siblings - children of the deceased brother of Sultan Saladin. The figure of Recha, raised by a Jew, daughter of a Muslim and a Christian, became a symbol of the reconciliation of three religions in the name of the highest ethical principles. The dispute between Natan and Saladin, as well as the plot of the Sultan's sister Sittah, should be considered a tolerant dialogue of different religious attitudes
and philosophical attitudes." Jerzy Malinowski, "Maurycy Gottlieb - Welcome...", Warsaw 1999

In 1877, almost 100 years after the drama was first printed, the well-known Munich publisher Friedrich Bruckmann set about preparing a luxurious richly illustrated edition of "Natan the Wise." The young but already acclaimed Maurycy Gottlieb was responsible for the graphic design. For the artist, who himself was to write in a letter to a friend: "I am a Pole and a Jew, and I want to work for both, when God gives," this must have been a particularly important commission, not least because of the profound humanism contained in Lessing's drama. According to the commission, Gottlieb was to prepare some 12 paintings, painted in oil on canvas in the en grisaille technique, best suited for photographic reproduction. According to the agreement, the artist was to present sketches to Bruckmann first and - only after approval - transfer these compositions to large canvases. Gottlieb painted about twenty such studies, the final versions - paintings with a format of ca. 110 x 80 cm - at least four. These include
Recha's greeting of Natan, Recha's rescue from the flames, the final scene with Saladin, Sittah and Recha, and Saladin and Sittah at chess.At the end of 1877, however, the artist stopped working on the series. Friedrich Bruckmann, for unknown reasons, was to withdraw from the contract, and eventually Lessing's drama was not published. Already after Gottlieb's death, twelve sketches and two large paintings (Recha's Greeting of Natan and Recha's Rescue from the Flames) ended up in the collection of Emil Beres, a friend of the artist, a lawyer from Krakow. One of the twelve sketches, is the work on display, a sketch for Recha, painted in oil on canvas pasted on cardboard. In addition, the artist used a brush handle here, gouging ornamental lines in the wet, fresh paint. In this painting, as well as in the other works in the series, inspiration from the paintings of the artist's beloved teacher, the master Jan Matejko, is still discernible, visible in the form, drawing and sometimes in the gestures or posing of the figures.