Untitled (Rabbi in Study)
Object numberM2025/082:007
TitleUntitled (Rabbi in Study)
Creator Perle Hessing (artist)
DescriptionPerle Hessing, Untitled (Rabbi in Study), Oil on canvas, signed and dated. The date is unclear.
Hessing depicts a detailed domestic interior in her characteristically naive style. A bearded man, possibly a rabbi or scholar, sits centrally in the composition holding an open book, positioned on an ornate patterned rug, flanked by symbolic objects associated with Jewish ritual, and a lit menorah behind him. Behind him, a bookshelf filled with volumes hints at a life devoted to study; an open prayer book and Tallis rests on a lectern. The background blends indoor and outdoor spaces: on the left, the open door reveals a moonlit scene of a village and an owl perched on a branch. At the bottom left, a cat sits on the floor. The painting blends the sacred and the domestic. Hessing's compressed perspective situates the work in the realm of storytelling, inviting the viewer to read the room's many objects as symbolic markers of identity, faith and community.
Self-taught, naive-style painter, Perle Hessing, draws on her Jewish faith, childhood memories, and personal story of survival. Born in 1908 in Poland, later settling in Australia in 1951, she began painting in her fifties, encouraged by Desiderius Orban (1884-1986), a Hungarian-Australian painter and art teacher. Her work is inspired by biblical stories from the Old Testament, folklore of shtetl life, Jewish rituals, as well as lived experience as a migrant. Her art is symbolic, blending narrative with personal and collective memory. Perle is the mother of artist Leonard Hessing (1931-2004), who was part of Australia's abstract expressionists. Keen to see how he might succeed in Europe, he ended up in London. She moved to the UK in circa 1973 where she died in 2001. In 2023, a collection of 24 paintings was generously donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum by her grandson, Theo Hessing.
Hessing depicts a detailed domestic interior in her characteristically naive style. A bearded man, possibly a rabbi or scholar, sits centrally in the composition holding an open book, positioned on an ornate patterned rug, flanked by symbolic objects associated with Jewish ritual, and a lit menorah behind him. Behind him, a bookshelf filled with volumes hints at a life devoted to study; an open prayer book and Tallis rests on a lectern. The background blends indoor and outdoor spaces: on the left, the open door reveals a moonlit scene of a village and an owl perched on a branch. At the bottom left, a cat sits on the floor. The painting blends the sacred and the domestic. Hessing's compressed perspective situates the work in the realm of storytelling, inviting the viewer to read the room's many objects as symbolic markers of identity, faith and community.
Self-taught, naive-style painter, Perle Hessing, draws on her Jewish faith, childhood memories, and personal story of survival. Born in 1908 in Poland, later settling in Australia in 1951, she began painting in her fifties, encouraged by Desiderius Orban (1884-1986), a Hungarian-Australian painter and art teacher. Her work is inspired by biblical stories from the Old Testament, folklore of shtetl life, Jewish rituals, as well as lived experience as a migrant. Her art is symbolic, blending narrative with personal and collective memory. Perle is the mother of artist Leonard Hessing (1931-2004), who was part of Australia's abstract expressionists. Keen to see how he might succeed in Europe, he ended up in London. She moved to the UK in circa 1973 where she died in 2001. In 2023, a collection of 24 paintings was generously donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum by her grandson, Theo Hessing.
SubjectJewish life, Jewish artists, , family life
Object namepaintings
Dimensions
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum collection, donated by Theo Hessing.
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.