Thursday, March 18, 2010

Unique rabbinic portraiture; I stand up for the honor of the Beis Halevi, I think. Reb Chaim Ozer fans should have a look as well.

SoMeHoW Frum includes the following painting in illustration of a post:



















It can be yours for $1200! (link).

I could not help but thinking that it's really a disrespectful depiction (surely unintentionally so). But I'd like to throw my point out there to see if people agree or not. While recognizing that in reality Reb Chaim is the true patriarch of the House of Brisk, is it not crass to place him front and center and largest of all, right next to the Beis Halevi?

(As an aside, I think these composites which seem fashionable these days are deliciously bizarre. The partisan Satmar ones are especially so.)

Since we're doing portraits, here's a unique one:



As you can see, this is R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky done in micrography while he was still living!