A set of paintings of the Prague Burial Society

Unknown artist, Undated, 1780s to the 1840s, Oil on canvas, 54 x 110 cm

Provenance:
From the property of the Prague Jewish Community’s Burial Society, as part of the property belonging to the abolished Jewish communities and associations in 1942 the group was included in the collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague (from 1942 to 1945 the Central Jewish Museum of the Jewish Council of Elders), where it has remained. Acc no. JMP 12.843/1-19

The individual paintings in the series:

1. Visiting the hospital
2. Praying by the deathbed
3. Shrouding the corpse
4. Washing the corpse
5. Sewing the burial shroud
6. Making the coffin
7. Digging the grave
8. Carrying the coffin
9. The Burial Society entering the cemetery
10. Oration over the grave
11. Bearing the coffin to the grave
12. Lowering the coffin into the grave
13. Consoling the bereaved
14. Washing hands before leaving the cemetery
15. The Executive Board of the Burial Society
16. Annual prayer by the grave of Rabbi Löw
17. Annual Burial Society banquet
18. New Jewish Cemetery at Prague-Olšany
19. Entry to the New Jewish Cemetery at Prague-Olšany

Portrait of the Bishop of Würzburg’s doctor, Moses Bernhard Wolfsheimer (ca. 1720–1782), father of Esther, wife of Gawriel Löwy, pharmacist of the Golden Lion in Prague

Unknown artist , Undated, 1770s, Oil on canvas, 70 x 54.5 cm, Unsigned

Provenance:
purchased in 2011 from a private owner in Čelákovice near Prague. Previous ownership history: at least up to 1933 in family ownership; last documented owner was Dr. Leo Epstein (1883–1933), a descendent of Wolsheimer, Löwy, Jeiteles, Brandeis, and Epstein; ownership history after 1933 is obscure. It is probable that the paintings remained in the possession of the Epstein family, specifically Leo Epstein’s widow Bedřiška, née Lumbe (1890–1948) and her son Valter (1922–1944, Schwarzheide). The paintings ostensibly came into the possession of the family who sold them via purchase or for safekeeping between 1939 and 1945. Acc. No. JMP 179.760

Portrait of Rabbi Shlomo Judah Leib Rapoport (1790–1867)

Antonín Machek (1755-1844), Undated, ca. 1841, OOil on canvas, 92.5 x 75.5 cm, Unsigned

Provenance:
acquired between 1906 and 1939 from an unidentified source, part of the prewar Jewish Museum’s collection and catalogued in 1937 under accession number 7. Acc. No. JMP 12.574

Portrait of a girl with a fur-lined coat

Max Oppenheimer (1885–1954), Oil on canvas, 88.5 x 59.5 cm, Signed and dated UR: Oppenheimer 1904

Provenance:
from 1904 to 1944 there is no reliable documentation – during that time it was in the possession of an unidentified individual in Prague, and no later than 1944 deposited at the Treuhandstelle in Prague; since 1946 it has been in the collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague. Acc. No. JMP 101.227

In the park

Georg Kars (1880–1945), 1906, Oil on canvas, 65 x 75.5 cm

Provenance:
acquired in 2002 from the Prague gallery Ztichlá klika, prior ownership undocumented. Acc. No. JMP 177.743

The Braník cement works

Bohumil Kubišta (1884–1918), Undated (1911), Oil on canvas, 67.5 x 83 cm (original decorative frame with carved ornamentation in relief: 79 x 94.5 cm), Unsigned

Provenance:
1911–1941/43 it was the property of an as of yet unidentified private owner in Prague; no later than 1943 deposited at the Treuhandstelle in Prague and that same year included in the collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague, from where it was removed in 1951 when the Museum was nationalized and transferred to the National Gallery in Prague; returned in 2000 to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Acc. No. JMP 60.631