Portrait of Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Ashkenasi. [Mid 20th century].
Oil on canvas mounted on plywood. Stamped: Freidmann.
Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Ashkenasi (1660-1718). Rabbi of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbek communities, Rabbi of the Ashkenasi community of Amsterdam. Passed through many communities in Ashkenaz and Poland and served as Rabbi of Lvov. Author of the "Chacham Zvi" responsa. His son, Rabbi Ya'akov Emden – the "Ya'avetz", relates in his memoirs that when his father, the "Chacham Zvi" visited England, his portrait was surreptitiously painted in oil, so exact that when he saw the painting "I reeled back as if he was standing here alive". He further tells that from this painting "replicas were made and sold for a high price…".
30X37 cm. in frame 41.5X48.5 cm. Not examined out of the frame.