Kol Nidre: The Eve of Atonement
Номер объектаM2025/082:012
НазваниеKol Nidre: The Eve of Atonement
Создатель Perle Hessing (artist)
ОписаниеPearle Hessing, Kol Nidre: The Eve of Atonement, Oil on canvas, signed P. Hessing, 1973.
The artist depicts a family that has (in her own words) "finished the last food they will eat until sunset the following day. For tomorrow is Yom Kippur, when they will fast, atone for all their wrongdoings and say prayers of penitence. Before they go to the synagogue the mother prays and blesses the candles."
In the foreground, a table is set with a candelabrum, a Shofar, and wine goblets filled with sacramental wine. The interior is rendered with other details: a wall clock, hanging lamp, and framed portrait with the 10 commandments. A large arched window reveals a stylised streetscape under a crescent moon, with an angel peering in.
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.
The artist depicts a family that has (in her own words) "finished the last food they will eat until sunset the following day. For tomorrow is Yom Kippur, when they will fast, atone for all their wrongdoings and say prayers of penitence. Before they go to the synagogue the mother prays and blesses the candles."
In the foreground, a table is set with a candelabrum, a Shofar, and wine goblets filled with sacramental wine. The interior is rendered with other details: a wall clock, hanging lamp, and framed portrait with the 10 commandments. A large arched window reveals a stylised streetscape under a crescent moon, with an angel peering in.
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.
Дата 1973
ТемаJewish life, Jewish artists, , family life
Наименованиеpaintings
Размерность
- width: 630.00 mm
height: 750.00 mm
Кредитная линияSydney 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.