Oil on canvas, signed at lower left, signed and dated 1948 on the verso and incorporating a Star of David, presented in a period frame.

SS 19.5 x 12.25 in.; DOA 23.25 x 16.25 in.

From the Collection of the late Sanford L. Batkin, Scarsdale, New York.

Mr. Batkin was born and raised in Brooklyn. After serving in the Army Air Corps during WWII, he settled in Scarsdale, New York. Mr. Batkin had a lifelong love for the State of Israel and was active in many charities, among them UJA, the Israel Museum, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Ben Shahn was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Lithuania. In 1906, Shahn and his family immigrated to Brooklyn, New York to escape anti-Semitism and political prosecution. He was a talented artist from a young age, eventually obtaining a job as a lithographer at the age of 19. His job allowed him to further his studies, including classes at New York University and the National Academy of Design.

A passion for social justice and political activism charges through Shahn's work. He counted Walker Evans and Diego Rivera among his friends and colleagues. Shahn's was successful in his career, exhibiting work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and elsewhere, working as an illustrator for prominent magazines like Esquire and Harper's, and providing political and propaganda posters for the US Government.

Small patch to verso.

$1,000 - 3,000