Hermit in a Grotto (St. Jerome?)

Entrusted to the Bezalel National Museum by JRSO (Jewish Restitution Successor Organization) in 1952, and restituted by the Israel Museum to the owner's heir, Bernard Rosenthal, in 2014; Gift of Bernard Rosenthal, Berkeley, California, in memory of his sister Gabriella Rosenthal

The painting hung in the shop of Jacques Rosenthal, an antiquarian bookseller in Munich who died of old age in 1937. When his family emigrated from Nazi Germany, Rosenthal’s shop and all its contents were Aryanized. This painting ended up in the Munich Central Collecting Point, and in 1952 it was shipped by the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) to the Bezalel National Museum, precursor of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

The Hashava Holocaust Restitution Company and the Israel Museum collaborated to research it, and it was one of five artworks that were restituted in 2014 to Jacques Rosenthal’s grandson Bernard. Bernard Rosenthal has kindly gifted all five works to the Israel Museum.