Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Ze'ev Raban
"Song of Songs Illustration" Old Testament, Watercolor

About the Item

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Song of Songs Illustration" renders an important bibilical story that is celebrated during Jewish Passover. Song of Solomon, also called Canticle of Canticles, or Song of Songs, an Old Testament book that belongs to the third section of the biblical canon, known as the Ketuvim, or “Writings.” In the Hebrew Bible the Song of Solomon stands with Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther and with them makes up the Megillot, five scrolls that are read on various religious festivals of the Jewish year. This book is the festal scroll for Pesaḥ (Passover), which celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This work has a provenance with Sotheby's. Raban easily navigated a wealth of artistic sources and mediums, borrowing and combining ideas from East and West, fine arts and crafts from past and present. His works blended European neoclassicism, Symbolist art and Art Nouveau with oriental forms and techniques to form a distinctive visual lexicon. Versatile and productive, he lent this unique style to most artistic mediums, including the fine arts, illustration, sculpture, repousee, jewelry design, and ceramics. He is regarded as a leading member of the Bezalel school art style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a style influenced by the European Jugendstil (similar to Art Nouveau) and by traditional Persian and Syrian styles. Like other European art nouveau artists of the period, such as Alphonse Mucha, Raban combined commercial commissions with uncommissioned paintings. Good examples of Raban's specific eclectic mix of European and Oriental styles are his illustrated editions of the Book of Ruth, Song of Songs, Book of Job, Book of Esther, and the Passover Hagadah. Known are also his playing cards, where in the suit of leaves, the King is Ahasuerus, the Queen is Esther, and the Jack is Haman. Unframed the piece is 8.25" h x 5" w.
  • Creator:
    Ze'ev Raban (1890 - 1970)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 17.38 in (44.15 cm)Width: 12.25 in (31.12 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Detroit, MI
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU128617031822

More From This Seller

View All
Clif McChesney, Abstract Expressionist, Watercolor
Located in Detroit, MI
The 16 in x 23 in watercolor displays striking and colorful qualities that influenced abstract expressionism for decades to come. In 2016 the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, Michigan, in homage to the very first exhibition in the Zimmerman Sculpture Court, installed the first two paintings by the former Michigan State University painting professor, Clif McChesney (1929-2011) on the Court walls, and the glass artistry of Dale Chihuly, featuring works from the Dennos Collection. In 1991, an exhibition of Dale Chihuly glass...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan/Self-Portrait", Watercolor, Figurative
By Masami Teraoka
Located in Detroit, MI
"McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan" is a delightfully inventive comic self-portrait by the creative genius Masami Teraoka. He has presented himself dressed in the traditional kimono robe and the artwork is in the famous Ukiyo-e style. Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica and sometimes humorous characters. The term ukiyo-e (浮世絵) translates as "picture[s] of the floating world". This delightful watercolor self-portrait, comments on the problematic relationship between the United States and Japan and the Americanization of his country in the work, utilizing subtle pun humor that is the hallmark of Japanese culture. As Teraoka explains, "the character 'maku; means spread, 'donald; means screaming, 'do' and 'han' mean often, and 'Han' also means obnoxious or annoying. 'Burger' sounds like 'Baka' which means stupidity." This work was originally purchased by filmmaker Eric Saarinen...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Mexicantown: Bagley Bridge" Proposal Drawing for Tile Mosaic, Watercolor
By Hubert Massey
Located in Detroit, MI
"Mexicantown: Bagley Bridge" is a proposal drawing for a mural completed by Hubert Massey in 2016. It is colorfully rendered on paper with color pencil a...
Category

2010s Contemporary Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Color Pencil

"Song of Songs Illustration" Watercolor, Old Testament Story, Colors
Located in Detroit, MI
SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Song of Songs Watercolor" renders an important bibilical story that is celebrated during Jewish Passover. Song of Solomon, also called Canticle of Canticles, or Song of Songs, an Old Testament...
Category

Mid-20th Century Other Art Style Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Charles Culver Watercolor Landscape "Red Hills Near Patzcurao" Signed & Dated
Located in Detroit, MI
The idyllic atmosphere of this Mexican scene is located in Mexico, west of Mexico City and south of Guadalajara. “Red Hills Near Patzcuaro” is set in a golden light. and was one of three paintings by the artist while the artist visited Patzcuaro, Mexico. The humans depicted lend an atmosphere to the painting and an indication of location - dressed in native Mexican peasant dress - without being obtrusive and causing the viewer to concentrate on them. The intense red hills of Patzcuaro are the feature in this painting along with the pinon and juniper trees and the Chamisa shrub. This piece has been professionally reframed with acid-free matting and museum glass. In a 1952 Detroit Free Press article, entitled “Artist Explains His Work,” Culver was asked why he painted the way he did. He stated: “I try to ‘see’ though not too exactly; I try to think though not too ponderously; I feel emotion yet I try not to become overwrought. I interpret rather than describe, and design rather than depict. I work with values, not light and shade; hence, when I am successful, I achieve substance rather than three-dimensional form, and this satisfies me as being wholly sufficient. In my work I wish to be serious without becoming a bore, exuberant without being frivolous, humorous without being silly. I believe that good paintings are conceived, not contrived; and I am interested in art much more than in pictures.” Charles Culver...
Category

1940s Naturalistic Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Untitled (Red Flower)" Watercolor on Paper, Abstract Flower, Signed & Dated
Located in Detroit, MI
Flowers were one of Culver's favorite subject. This stunning portrait of a red flower draws the viewer into its very center as powerfully as any flower portrait by Georgia O'Keeffe. It is the idyllic flower that can be described as in the romantic style wherein the subject depicted is a more desired or dramatic version of what actually is. It is signed and dated by the artist on the lower left. This piece has been professionally reframed with acid-free matting and museum glass. In a 1952 Detroit Free Press article, entitled “Artist Explains His Work,” Culver was asked why he painted the way he did. He stated: “I try to ‘see’ though not too exactly; I try to think though not too ponderously; I feel emotion yet I try not to become overwrought. I interpret rather than describe, and design rather than depict. I work with values, not light and shade; hence, when I am successful, I achieve substance rather than three-dimensional form, and this satisfies me as being wholly sufficient. In my work I wish to be serious without becoming a bore, exuberant without being frivolous, humorous without being silly. I believe that good paintings are conceived, not contrived; and I am interested in art much more than in pictures.” Charles Culver...
Category

1950s Romantic Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

You May Also Like

The King's Camelopard
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Charles Frederick de Brocktorff (1775–1850) ‘Camelopard – a present from the Pacha of Egypt to the King – at Malta on its way to England’ Signed and dated C.F. de Brocktorff. / 1827. lower right, inscribed as titled in the painted margins lower centre. Pencil and watercolour heightened with gold paint and gum arabic on paper, 36.8 x 27.9 cm A gift so majestic, it made kings blush, and a gift so grand, it would startle Europe into a craze. Pasha Muhammad Ali of Egypt (1805-1848) did it in 1827: he sent to Europe three magical spotted, horned creatures, each with a neck reaching the skies and legs as long as a house is high. One giraffe to King Charles X of France, one to Francis I of Austria and the most fabled one to King George IV of England. A curious sight for Europeans, who had not seen such a beast since the Medici giraffe in 1487. Few animals created more of a stir in Europe than these royal...
Category

1820s Naturalistic Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gold

Animal painting of a 'Tamanuâguacû (Ant-eater)' late 17th/18th century, Brazil
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Follower of Zacharias Wagener (1614-1688) Tamanuâguasû (Giant Anteater) On Italian 17th or 18th-century paper, H. 28 x W. 43.5 cm ​The present painting is a copy after Wagener’s painting of the anteater, Tamanduá-bandeira, which is illustrated in his “Thier Buch”, with 109 drawings of Brazilian fish, birds and mammals, published in Amsterdam c. 1641, in German. ​ Zacharias Wagener, or Wagenaer in Dutch, (Dresden 1614 – Amsterdam 1668) was a real adventurer who became Opperhoofd on Deshima and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in the service of the VOC. During the Thirty-Year War in Germany Wagener tried his luck in Amsterdam where he worked for the map-maker Willem Blaeu. In 1634 he joined the WIC and left for Dutch Brazil where he worked as writer and painter, together with Frans Post...
Category

Early 18th Century Old Masters Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink, Gouache

The sentinels Haude Bernabé Contemporary art drawing African art nature animal
By Haude Bernabé
Located in Paris, FR
Watercolour and ink on paper Unique work Hand-signed and entitled lower left by the artist
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Original 70's Hand Painted Textile Design Gouache Yellow & Black Color on Paper
Located in ALCOY/ALCOI, ES
Birds design. Sealed on the back with the design studio name and number 98 We offer a small number of these original illustration designs by this design studio based in Alcoy (Spain)...
Category

1970s Modern Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Heart and Fish - Contemporary Figurative Watercolors Painting, New Expression
Located in Salzburg, AT
Grażyna Rigall is a painter, illustrator, author of stage designs and music videos. - The artist is interested in the merging of the world of fauna and flora with the world of man, p...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Yellow-Black Monkey - Figurative Ink Ecoline Painting, New Expression
Located in Salzburg, AT
Grażyna Rigall is a painter, illustrator, author of stage designs and music videos. - The artist is interested in the merging of the world of fauna and flora with the world of man, p...
Category

2010s Contemporary Animal Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Recently Viewed

View All