Yehuda Pen, also known as Yuri Pen ( yi, יודל פּען – ''Yudl Pen''; 5 June 1854 – 1 March 1937), was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish painter and art teacher. He was a major figure of the

Jewish Renaissance ''Jewish Renaissance'' is a quarterly cultural magazine, founded in October 2001, covering Jewish culture, arts and communities in Britain and beyond. It is edited by Rebecca Taylor, a former News Editor at '' Time Out London''. Scope and con ...

in Russian and Belarusian art at the beginning of 20th century. Pen's most famous student in Vitebsk was the great Jewish painter Marc Chagall.

Biography

Yehuda Pen was born on May 24 (June 5

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

) 1854 in the city of

Novoalexandrovsk Novoalexandrovsk (russian: Новоалекса́ндровск) is a town and the administrative center of Novoalexandrovsky District in Stavropol Krai, Russia, located on the bank of the Rasshevatka River, northwest of Stavropol, the admini ...

, known as Ezhereni in Yiddish. He was orphaned at the age of thirteen and became an apprentice to a decorative painter in

Dvinsk Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the ...

. In 1879 he went to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and took the entrance exam at the

Imperial Academy of Fine Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thr ...

, but failed due to his lack of fluency in Russian. Despite lacking the necessary

internal passport An internal passport or a domestic passport is an identity document. Uses for internal passports have included restricting citizens of a subdivided state to employment in their own area (preventing their migration to richer cities or regions), cle ...

, he remained there and, in 1881, obtained permission to audit classes. His teachers included Pavel Chistyakov,

Valentin Serov Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (russian: Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в; 19 January 1865 – 5 December 1911) was a Russian painter and one of the premier portrait artists of his era. Life and work Youth and edu ...

and

Mikhail Vrubel Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (russian: Михаил Александрович Врубель; March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910, all n.s.) was a Russian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and innovative master in various med ...

. He was eventually admitted as a student and graduated in 1886. He returned to Dvinsk for a time, then moved to Riga, where he became involved in the local artistic circles and met Ilya Repin, who had an estate along the Dvina that was a meeting place for the

Peredvizhniki Peredvizhniki ( rus, Передви́жники, , pʲɪrʲɪˈdvʲiʐnʲɪkʲɪ), often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restr ...

. In 1891, on his friends' advice, he settled in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest c ...

and, a year later, opened a private art school that was the first Jewish art school in Belarus. He catered to many poor students who were unable to gain admission to the larger academies; all they needed was a sponsor. Pen's pupils included

Ilya Mazel Ilya, Iliya, Ilia, Ilja, or Ilija (russian: Илья́, Il'ja, , or russian: Илия́, Ilija, ; uk, Ілля́, Illia, ; be, Ілья́, Iĺja ) is the East Slavic form of the male Hebrew name Eliyahu (Eliahu), meaning "My God is Yahu/Jah." ...

, Yefim Minin, Oskar Meshchaninov, Marc Chagall,

Ossip Zadkine Ossip Zadkine (russian: Осип Цадкин; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Belarusian-born French artist. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs. Early years and education Zadkine was born on ...

, Peter Yavich, Leon Gaspard,

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

, and Isaac Lichtenstein. The school was in operation until 1919. At that time, thanks to the efforts of Chagall, he became a teacher at the Vitebsk Art School. Pen was killed at his home in Vitebsk on the night of 28 February/1 March 1937. The exact circumstances of his death have never been clarified. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery there. The bronze bust on his grave has been stolen twice. The vast majority of Pen's major works are located in Belarusian museums, a gallery devoted to his works has been created in Vitebsk. His works are also kept at the

Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art (russian: Витебский Музей Современного Искусства) was an art museum in Vitebsk, Belarus organized in 1918 by Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich and Alexander Romm. In 1921, it exhibited 1 ...

and the

Belarusian National Arts Museum The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus ( be, Нацыянальны мастацкі музей Рэспублікі Беларусь) is the largest art museum in Belarus and is located in Minsk. The museum comprises more than thirty t ...

Gallery

1903. Письмо из америки.jpg, ''Letter from America'', 1903 Стары шавец.jpg, ''Old Tailor'', 1910 1910-е. За газетой.jpg, ''Reading a Newspaper'', 1910s Jewish-life Pen Vitebsk-8.jpg, ''Clockmaker'', 1914 Yury Pen - Portrait of Marc Chagall.jpg, ''Marc Chagall'', c. 1915 Yehuda Pen Portrait of the Unknown 1917.jpg, ''Portrait of a Man'', 1917 Iehuda Pen. House with a goat 1920s.jpg, ''House with a Goat'', 1920s Yehuda Pen Self-Portrait with Muse and with Death.JPG, ''Self-portrait with Muse and Death'', 1925 Yury_Pen-Talmudist.jpg, ''

Talmudist The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...

'', 1925 Iehuda Pen Breakfast SelfPortrait 1932.jpg, ''Breakfast'', self-portrait, 1932 Проситель.jpg, ''Petitioner''

References

* Шишанов В. А. Витебский Музей современного искусства: история создания и коллекции.

' 1918—1941. Минск: Медисонт, 2007

* Шишанов В. В неразобранном виде... // Витебский проспект. 2006. №2. 12 янв. p. 3.

* Шишанов В. Материалы о Ю.М.Пэне в РГАЛИ // Бюллетень Музея Марка Шагала. 2004. №2(12). pp. 5–11

* Шишанов В. Об утраченном портрете Марка Шагала работы Юрия Пэна // Бюллетень Музея Марка Шагала. 2006. №14. pp. 110–11

* Шишанов, В. Материалы о Ю. М. Пэне в РГАЛИ / В. Шишанов. // Малевич. Классический авангард. Витебск — 11: �льманах / ред. Т. Котович — Минск: Экономпресс, 2009. — pp. 42–55

* Изобразительное искусство Витебска 1918 – 1923 гг. в местной периодической печати : библиограф. указ. и тексты публ. / сост. В. А. Шишанов. – Минск : Медисонт, 2010

* Мясоедова, С
Школа Юрия Пэна: дата открытия и адреса
С. Мясоедова, В. Шишанов // Віцебскі край: матэрыялы VІ Міжнароднай навукова-практычнай канферэнцыі «Віцебскі край», прысвечанай 75-годдзю Перамогі ў Вялікай Айчыннай вайне, 19 лістапада 2020 г., Віцебск. – Мінск : Нацыянальная бібліятэка Беларусі, 2021. – Т. 6. – С. 326–333, 430–431.

External links

Bio at Vitebsk City informational portal
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pen, Yehuda Belarusian painters Jewish painters Russian artists Lithuanian Jews Belarusian Jews 1854 births 1937 deaths People from Zarasai