Portrait of the painter Ephraim Mandelbaum (Ephraïma Mandela)

Portrayed here is Efraim Mandelbaum (1884-1943), a Polish painter of Jewish origin. In 1905, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków where he studied under the direction of Józef Mehoffer and Leon Wyczółkowski. Having moved permanently to Paris in 1925, he would exhibit at Parisian salons alongside Mojżesz Kisling and Tadeusz Makowski – it was there that he came into contact with the École de Paris circle of which Leopold Gottlieb was a member.

There is considerable grimness to the depiction of Mandelbum – the dark background and the burgundy clothes the painter wears evoke a sense of unease much like that felt in a thick forest at twilight. It might have been Gottlieb’s intention to represent this time of day – twilight. The last feeble rays of sunlight fall on what matters the most – the artist’s face and hands. There are no painterly attributes in the picture, yet the focused gaze from behind the glasses conveys the impression that an artistic process at its embryonic – or, on the contrary, final – stage is taking place.

In the portrait, Mandelbaum seems to be sleeping, slumped in an armchair, his eyes closed. They are, however, not closed – on closer inspection the viewer notices that they are merely squinted, closely watching.