See additional artwork by Hermann Struck in the LBI Art Collection

Hermann Struck (Chaim Aaron ben David, 1876-1944) was born into a prosperous Orthodox family in Berlin and originally planned to pursue a rabbinical career. When his extraordinary artistic talents became manifest, he enrolled at the Berlin Academy of Art and, in 1900, continue his education with the renowned Dutch Jewish painter Josef Israels in Holland.  Israels’ close friend was Max Liebermann, who became a mentor and close friend of Struck as well. At Liebermann’s suggestion, Struck joined the Berlin Secession in 1906, an association of contemporary artists cofounded in 1898 by Liebermann, who also served as its first president. The Secession represented modern artists opposed to the academic style promoted by the conservative art establishment of the time.  Among its members were Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Käthe Kollwitz, and Max Slevogt.

Struck became known for his portraits of prominent Europeans as well as for landscapes encountered during his numerous travels.  An early Zionist, Struck was among the founders of the Mizrachi movement in Germany, an organization that considered the Torah the focal point of Zionism. After his first trip to Palestine in 1903, Struck created a likeness of Theodor Herzl that became the signature piece of the Zionist movement. Struck was among the first German Zionists to move to Palestine in1923, settling in Haifa. He subsequently joined the faculty of the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, where he taught a new generation of Israeli artists the art of printmaking.

During the First World War, Struck served on the Eastern front as the liaison officer of the German army with the Jewish communities of Lithuania and Belorussia, a task for which he was uniquely qualified as an Orthodox Jew and a member of the Mizrachi movement which had its origins in Eastern Europe. During his military service he documented the East European shtetl life in hundreds of lithographs and etchings that introduced assimilated Western Jews to the lifestyle of their Eastern coreligionists.

Throughout his life, Hermann Struck not only gained international renown as an artist, but also excelled as a teacher: his book, The Art of Etching, published in 1908, became a standard work in its field. Struck taught etching to Marc Chagall, Lesser Ury, and Jacob Steinhardt, among others. 

This exhibit presents Struck’s work in the context of the emerging modern art movements in Germany and Palestine. On display will also be works by Max Liebermann, Josef Israels, Lesser Ury and Jacob Steinhardt. A rare collection of oil paintings and watercolors depicting Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s will also be shown along with photos, letters and publications by and about this modern master whose influence on 20^th century art is only now beginning to be recognized.  

Previous Exhibitions.