From Oriental Universalism to Jewish Self-Orientalization: Maurycy Gottlieb`s and Samuel Hirszenberg`s Evolving Identities

Between 1876 and 1877 Maurycy Gottlieb (1856-1879) created at least two versions of himself dressed as a young and handsome Arab. Traditionally perceived as one of Gottlieb`s searches for self-identification those portraits are usually disconnected from the broader field of European Orientalism, especially as it was perceived by liberal, acculturated Jews, notably in Austro-Hungary and Germany, where Gottlieb studied art. By re-examining Gottlieb`s repeated identification with Oriental characters in works such as Expulsion of the Moors from Granada (1877), Jews Praying in the Synagogue on the Day of Atonement (1878), and Christ Preaching at Capernaum (1878-1879), I intend to demonstrate Gottlieb`s unique alignment with the Orient as the site of all three Abrahamic religions and thus with universalist ideas, much in line with contemporary Polish Positivism and his own strive for inclusion. In contrast, Lodz-born Jewish artist Samuel Hirszenberg (1865-1908), who developed as an artist in the early 1880s, marked by economic problems and the rise of anti-Semitism, imagined the Orient differently. In his recently revealed 1883-1884 notebook, Hirszenberg drew Oriental characters as opposed to images of armed Crusaders. Reacting to Gustave Doré`s and Jan Matejko`s Christian knights depicted on their voyage to free Jerusalem from infidels, Hirszenberg (as reflected in his little known painting Miriam`s Song, 1884), sided with the Other, the non-Christian and non-European Orientals. Reflecting changes occurring in his time, such as the rise of Jewish nationalism, Hirszenberg abandoned Gottlieb`s all-embracing approach, instead, stressing the tension between universal humanism, cosmopolitanism and Jewish otherness.