E. M. Lilien

Ephriam Moses Lilien, born 1874 in Drohobycz (Galicia,) died 1925 in Badenweiler, Germany.

Photographer and artist in the art nouveau style, particularly noted for his Jewish and Zionist themes, he is sometimes called the "first Zionist Artist." [ [http://www.tau.ac.il/arts/projects/PUB/assaph-art/assaph3/articles_assaph3/11finkelstein.pdf Haim Finkelstein, Lilien and Zionism] ]

In 1889-1893 he learned to paint and use graphical techniques, at the Academy of Arts in Kraków; he was lectured by polish painter Jan Matejko from 1890 to 1892. Lilien was one of the most influential Jewish artists of the 20th Century and a founding father of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and a member of the Bezalel school of art. As part of the Jungenstil (“Youth-Style”) art movement, he produced innumerable periodical and book illustrations, bookplates and posters. His work illustrating the three-volume Die Bucher der Bibel with a series of bold, moody and -at times- erotic images both shocked and delighted readers and ensured his fame.

He was a member of the Zionist movement and undertook several journeys to Palestine and the Middle East between 1906 and 1918. While there he produced a series of exquisite photographs of traditional Jews and Arabs, some of which have become iconic and often-reproduced images of Ottoman-era Palestine.

Lilien’s work often re-conceptualized Judaism in mythic and esoteric terms. A classic example of this is his illustration of the “Sabbath Queen.”

His illustrated books, include Juda (1900), Biblically-themes poetry by Lilien's Christian friend, Börries Freiherr von Münchausen, and Lieder des Ghetto (Songs of the Ghetto) (1903), Yiddish poems by Morris Rosenfeld translated into German.

His portrait photograph of Theodor Herzl is widely reproduced. [ [http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/kiev/expressions/herzl.htm http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/kiev/expressions/herzl.htm] ]

External links

* [http://www.hasencleverart.com/artists/lilien.html http://www.hasencleverart.com/artists/lilien.html]
* [http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/kiev/expressions/lilien.htm http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/kiev/expressions/lilien.htm]
* [http://www.ejmmm2007.blogspot.com Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism ] at blogspot.com

References