Untitled (Jewish Wedding)
Object numberM2025/082:010
TitleUntitled (Jewish Wedding)
Creator Perle Hessing (artist)
DescriptionPerle Hessing, Untitled (Jewish Wedding), Oil on canvas, unsigned and undated.
In this scene, Hessing captures a moment from a traditional Jewish wedding, rendered in her signature naive style. The bride, dressed in a white gown and veil, leans toward the groom under the chuppah. Two children hold candles. In the background, a white-clothed table is set with a Sabbath candelabrum, wine and plaited bread (challah), suggesting a kiddush to follow the ceremony. While the scene draws on the familiar iconography of a Jewish wedding, Hessing places the chuppah in an outdoor rural setting, under a moonlit sky. The emphasis on intergenerational presence may reflect the communal nature of marriage in Jewish tradition, where the union is celebrated as a personal milestone and a moment that strengthens the fabric of the 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.
In this scene, Hessing captures a moment from a traditional Jewish wedding, rendered in her signature naive style. The bride, dressed in a white gown and veil, leans toward the groom under the chuppah. Two children hold candles. In the background, a white-clothed table is set with a Sabbath candelabrum, wine and plaited bread (challah), suggesting a kiddush to follow the ceremony. While the scene draws on the familiar iconography of a Jewish wedding, Hessing places the chuppah in an outdoor rural setting, under a moonlit sky. The emphasis on intergenerational presence may reflect the communal nature of marriage in Jewish tradition, where the union is celebrated as a personal milestone and a moment that strengthens the fabric of the 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.