Jews in early American portraits - traveling exhibition

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 1997 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

In 1654, when Brazil fell to the Portuguese, Jews who had earlier fled there were forced to flee once again. Twenty-three of them arrived in New Amsterdam in search of religious freedom and others followed, so that by 1830 America had a Jewish population of approximately four thousand. For an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York City that treats the Jewish experience in the New World and early Republic Richard Brilliant, the guest curator, has gathered eighty-seven portraits of early American Jews. The exhibition is entitled Faring the New World: Jewish Portraits in Colonial and Federal America and is on view until January 11, 1998. It then travels to the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, where it may be seen from February 19 to May 24, 1998. The portraits - miniatures, silhouettes, and oils - were executed by many of the leading artists of the period - Ralph Earl, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Smart, Thomas Sully, and others. The portraits are complemented by a selection of decorative arts.

At the outset, most of the Jews who settled here were Sephardic, but by 1720, through intermarriage and immigration, they were outnumbered by Ashkenazic Jews from Central Europe and Germanic lands. What united them was their desire to become Americans first and foremost and Jewish Americans secondarily. They settled in many of the eastern cities: Boston, New York, Newport, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Richmond, Charleston, and Savannah, becoming merchants, traders, shippers, and bankers. But their numbers in these communities were tiny by comparison to their Christian counterparts. For example, in New York City with a population of between about 8,500 and 10,000, only 20 Jews were recorded in 1734. They shared one synagogue and burial ground, and yet probably spoke several different languages and observed diverse religious rituals. Intermarriage with the Christian population was inevitable, but scorned. Objects like a late eighteenth-century condiment pot commissioned by the Gomez family (New York's wealthiest Jewish family in the mid-eighteenth century) from an English silversmith illustrate how Jews adapted to their life in a predominantly Christian society. The pot lost its secular function when the Gomezes used it as an etrog holder - a vessel used in the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkoth.

Colonial portraits are indebted to the British portrait tradition for the emphasis placed on depicting the sitters status and role in society. Interestingly, in the Jewish communities of Europe, from which many American Jews emigrated, the custom of commissioning portraits was not normally practiced. By the post-Revolutionary period the focus had shifted from formulaic portraiture to an attempt to capture the character traits of each sitter. The preference for these more naturalistic likenesses paralleled the assimilation of Jews in America, particularly as their numbers and status increased. At the same time, American society became less and less hierarchical and the merchant class no longer enjoyed the elevated status it had before the Revolution.

The exhibition catalogue, written by Brilliant with an essay by Ellen Smith, is co-published by the Jewish Museum and Prestel. It is available from the Cooper Shop at the Jewish Museum for $25.00 (paper covers) by telephoning 212-423-3211 or from Prestel for $49.95 (hard covers) at 800-352-0305.