LILIEN, EPHRAIM MOSES (1874-1925)

"Queen Esther Of Persia" (1911)
Original etching & aquatint
27 x 30cm
Signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Lilien was an important Russian Art Nouveau Illustrator and Printmaker. He studied painting and graphic techniques at the Academy of Arts in Kraków, under Polish painter Jan Matejko. In 1896, he received an award for photography from the avantgarde magazine Jugend. Lilien illustrated several books. As a member of the Zionist Movement, Lilien traveled to Ottoman Palestine several times between 1906 and 1918. He established the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Israel, and taught the school's first class in 1906. In 1923, an exhibition of his work opened in New York. This rare original high quality etching depicts the Jewish Queen Esther of Persia, of the Book Of Esther in the Jewish Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).
 
Reference: Painting With Light: The Photographic Aspect in the Work of E.M. Lilien (1991) p. 49, based on photograph, Model with Scarf and Head Adornment, 1906, TAMA No. 91.