The Last Days of Rabbi ben Ezra

Born to a bourgeois, religious family who eventually settled in London’s East End, an area which housed many Jewish migrants, Wolmark changed his name to the more English-sounding ‘Alfred’ around 1894, in the face of antisemitism, whilst studying at the Royal Academy Schools. Encouraged to pursue an artistic career by his parents, unlike many first generation émigré Jewish artists, he first excelled at Rembrandt-esque history paintings with predominantly Jewish subjects. This painting is based on Robert Browning’s poem Rabbi ben Ezra (1864), which contradicted conventional ideas about aging by interpreting the philosophy of the 12th century Hebrew sage, Abraham Ibn Ezra, who greeted old age with eagerness rather than with depressed resignation, probably reflecting Browning’s own beliefs. The authentic depiction of Jewish ritual and costume was enhanced by Wolmark’s return visit to Poland in 1903, where he steeped himself in the ‘old ways’. The solemnity of the moment is subtly alleviated by the inclusion of the artist’s own moustachioed self-portrait just above the centre of the painting.