In the Canteen
Artist
Josef Herman
(Warsaw, Poland, 1911 - 2000)
Date1954
Mediumoil on canvas
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsHeight: 91.4 cm, Width: 122 cm
Frame Size: 96.7 × 127.2 × 5.5cm
Frame Size: 96.7 × 127.2 × 5.5cm
AcquisitionPurchased in 1962 with income from the Macdonald Bequest.
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG002746
About MeJosef Herman was a Jewish refugee who fled Poland before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1944 he settled in Wales where the local mining community became the subject of his art. Like Dutch and French Realist artists of the previous century, he sought to elevate the status of the working class.In this painting the three miners are reduced to simple masses executed in broad brushstrokes, The primitive style of execution recalls African tribal sculpture and it is through this studied simplicity that Herman successfully evokes the power and heroic grandeur of his subject.
James Cowie
Sir Robert Williams
