Maurice (Moses) APFELBAUM (APPELBAUM) (1887-1931), "Notice in Jerusalem".

oil, cardboard, 48.5 x 38 cm,
signed p. d.: Apfelbaum
On the reverse, oval stamp of R. Aleksandrowicz Painting Accessories Warehouse, Kraków, 12 Basztowa St., and pencil inscription: Maurycy Apfelbaum / Cairo / 1930.

Painter, graphic artist, stage designer. Moved to Warsaw at a young age, and from there to Lodz, where he was employed painting signs and designing patterns for textiles at a textile factory. Ca. 1906 he went to Vienna to study art, and continued his studies in Germany, Holland and England. In England he trained at an academy in Liverpool, and in London, where he had his first solo exhibition in 1918. After the first war, he settled in Katowice. He was the author of the frescoes in the wooden synagogue in Bedzin (unfortunately not preserved), where he was assisted by Samuel Cygler and Chaim Hanft, and his frescoes in the synagogue in Lowicz have not survived. As a stage designer, he worked with the Jewish Theater in Warsaw. A posthumous exhibition of the artist's works was held in Katowice in 1931. His early compositions bring him close to Post-Impressionism. The artist is considered one of the most important representatives of "Jewish Expressionism" in Poland. Apfelbaum's later works are often Jewish scenes, landscapes and genre scenes, also from the Silesian Beskid and Upper Silesia, maintained in a realistic style.
(Lit.: J. Malinowski, "Malarstwo i rzeźba Żydów polskich w XIX i XX wieku", PWN, Warsaw, 2000, pp. 368, 369)