Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): MAX WEBER 1940
the artist, Great Neck, NY (1940–43; sold through Paul Rosenberg, New York to Lowenthal); Edith and Milton Lowenthal, New York (1943–his d. 1987); Edith Lowenthal, New York (1987–d. 1991; her bequest to MMA)
New York. Associated American Artists Galleries. "Max Weber," February 11–March 3, 1941 [reduced version of the exhibition on view through March 15], no. 17 (as "Chassidic Dance," listed for sale).
Washington, D. C. Phillips Memorial Gallery. "American Paintings & Water Colors with Rooms of Recent Work by Max Weber, Karl Knaths, Morris Graves," March 15–31, 1942, unnumbered cat. (as "Chassidic Dance").
Pittsburgh. Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute. "Exhibition of Paintings by Max Weber," March 9–April 18, 1943, no. 48 (as "Chassidic Dance," 1939, lent by The Collection of Paul Rosenberg and Company).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Romantic Painting in America," November 17, 1943–February 6, 1944, no. 204 (as "Chassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
London. Tate Gallery. "American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day," June 14–August 5, 1946, no. 217 (as "Chassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "New York Private Collections," July 20–September 12, 1948, unnumbered cat. (as "Chassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Max Weber Retrospective Exhibition," February 5–March 27, 1949, no. 53 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "Max Weber Retrospective Exhibition," April 17–May 29, 1949, no. 53.
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Max Weber Retrospective Exhibition," June–August 1949, no catalogue.
São Paulo. Belvedere Trianon. "I Bienal do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo," October 20–December 23, 1951, no. 76 (as "Dança chassídica," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal, New York).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," October 1–November 2, 1952, no. 98.
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," November 28, 1952–January 17, 1953, no. 98.
New York. Wildenstein. "Landmarks in American Art 1670–1950: A Loan Exhibition of Great American Paintings for the Benefit of the American Federation of Arts," February 26–March 28, 1953, no. 54 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal, New York).
East Hampton, N.Y. Guild Hall. "Contemporary Religious Art: Paintings, Sculpture, Architecture, Metal, Glass," August 15–September 6, 1954, no. 22 (as "Chassadic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal, New York City).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: A 25th Anniversary Exhibition," May 31–September 5, 1955, no. 159 (as "Chassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
New York. Jewish Museum. "Exhibition of Oil and Tempera Paintings, Gouaches, Pastels, Woodcuts, Lithographs and Drawings by Max Weber," March–May 1956, no. 25 (as "Hassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal, New York City).
Waltham, Mass. Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University. "Festival of the Creative Arts, Art on the Campus: An Exhibition," June 1–20, 1957, no. 8 (as "Chassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal, New York City).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "The Museum and Its Friends: Twentieth-century American Art from Collections of the Friends of the Whitney Museum," April 30–June 15, 1958, no. 172 (lent by Edith and Milton Lowenthal).
New York. Downtown Gallery. "Max Weber: The Figure in Retrospect 1906–1958," November 11–December 6, 1958, no. 22 (as "Hassidic Dance," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
Newark Museum. "Max Weber Retrospective Exhibition," October 1–November 15, 1959, no. 41 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal).
New York. AFA Gallery. "Selections from the Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," May 25–June 5, 1964, no catalogue.
Brooklyn Museum. "Modernist Art from the Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," March 21–May 10, 1981, no. 64.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Art: The Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection," October 10, 1996–January 12, 1997, unnumbered cat. (p. 15; published in MMA Bulletin 54, summer 1996).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Max Weber from the Collection," March 9–June 13, 1999, no catalogue.
James Thrall Soby inRomantic Painting in America. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1943, pp. 40–41, 143, no. 204, ill. p. 92, calls it "Chassidic Dance".
"Loan to Britain—200 Years of Art." Art Digest 20 (May 15, 1946), p. 7, calls it "Chassidic Dance".
James Thrall Soby. Contemporary Painters. New York, 1948, pp. 33–34, ill. p. 31, calls it "Chassidic Dance"; observes humor present in this work.
Robert M. Coates. "The Art Galleries: A Max Weber Retrospective." New Yorker (February 19, 1949), p. 71, reviews Exh. New York and tour 1949.
Lloyd Goodrich. Max Weber Retrospective Exhibition. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1949, pp. 49, 61, no. 53, ill. p. 39, notes that this work is based on the artist's "childhood memory of a service of the Hasidim in Russia" and recalls his experience creating the work; notes its "element of the grotesque" and "intense feeling of the fervor and ecstasy that are the essence of Hasidism".
Jo Gibbs. "Whitney Museum Honors Career of Max Weber, Pioneering Modern." Art Digest 23 (February 15, 1949), p. 13, ill.
Holger Cahill. "Max Weber: A Reappraisal in Maturity." Magazine of Art 42 (April 1949), pp. 132–33, ill., calls it "Chassidic Dance" and classifies the work as part of the artist's "social comment" period.
Mary Cole. "Max Weber Transcends Influences on His Art." Star Tribune (April 24, 1949), p. C29.
Alexander Fried. "Weber Display Shows Sharp Career Variation." San Francisco Examiner (July 10, 1949), p. 155.
John I. H. Baur. Revolution and Tradition in Modern American Art. Cambridge, Mass., 1951, p. 43, fig. 42 (courtesy Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal), describes this work as the peak of the artist's expressionist phase.
Dore Ashton. "Lowenthals' Private Stock." Art Digest 27 (October 15, 1952), p. 15, describes it as part of the artist's later romantic-expressionist style.
John I. H. Baur. Landmarks in American Art 1670–1950: A Loan Exhibition of Great American Paintings for the Benefit of the American Federation of Arts. Exh. cat., Wildenstein. New York, 1953, unpaginated, no. 54, ill.
Lloyd Goodrich. "Landmarks in American Art." Magazine of Art 46 (March 1953), p. 111, ill., calls it "Chassidic Dance".
Alfred H. Barr Jr. "Paintings from Private Collections." Museum of Modern Art Bulletin 22 (Summer 1955), p. 35, no. 159, ill. p. 19 (installation photo), calls it "Chassidic Dance".
Holger Cahill. "American Supplement: Twentieth Century Art in the United States." Marg Pathway: A Magazine of the Arts 10 (December 1956), p. 49, pl. 1, calls it "Chassidic Dance" and describes the work as a "synthesis of abstraction and emotional expression".
Lloyd Goodrich. "Max Weber." New Art in America: Fifty Painters of the 20th Century. Ed. John I. H. Baur. Greenwich, Conn., 1957, ill. p. 71.
B. H. Friedman. "Trends in Collecting: The New Collector." Art in America 46 (Summer 1958), p. 15, ill. p. 16, discusses this work as part of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lowenthal.
Jerome Klein inMax Weber: The Figure in Retrospect 1905–1958. Exh. cat., Downtown Gallery. New York, 1958, unpaginated, no. 22.
Robert M. Coates. "The Art Galleries: Things Past." New Yorker (May 31, 1958), p. 81.
Stephen S. Kayser. "Max Weber: A Patriarch Returns to Newark." Art News 58 (October 1959), pp. 55–56.
William H. Pierson Jr. and Martha Davidson, ed. Arts of the United States: A Pictorial Survey. New York, 1960, no. 3434, ill. p. 364.
Alfred Werner. "Max Weber: Hasidic Painter." Judaism 9 (Summer 1960), pp. 261–62, notes that although this work derives from a childhood experience, Weber depicts his subjects in Western top hats instead of fur-trimmed hats that would have been worn at the time.
Sheldon C. Schoneberg. "Max Weber." Recall 2, no. 4 (1962), p. 26, calls it "Hassidic Dance".
Chester E. Eisinger. The 1940s: Profile of a Nation in Crisis. New York, 1969, p. 244, pl. 21, calls it "Hasidic Dance" in the text and "Chassidic Dance" in the caption; notes that it suggests "the diversity of American religious experience; the emergence of Hasidim in modern, postwar America; the impact of Jewish culture upon the United States".
Alfred Werner. "Max Weber's Posthumous Triumph." Dimensions in American Judaism 5 (Spring 1971), p. 54.
Edmund Burke Feldman. Varieties of Visual Experience: Art as Image and Idea. 2nd ed., rev. and enl. (1st ed., 1967). New York, 1972, p. 247, ill., calls it "Hassidic Dance".
Alfred Werner. Max Weber. New York, 1975, p. 27, colorpl. 7.
John R. Lane inThe Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. New York, 1981, pp. 4–5, 57, no. 64, ill. p. 56, publishes an excerpt from Weber's poem "Melodic Rage Hebraic," noting that the artist gave the Lowenthals a copy of the poem when they bought this work.
Carol Vogel. "The Art Market." New York Times (April 3, 1992), p. C30, mentions this work as part of a larger donation from the estate of Edith Lowenthal to MMA.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. "American Art: The Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 54 (Summer 1996), pp. 7, 15, 53, 55, ill. (color and bw).
Matthew Baigell. "Max Weber's Jewish Paintings." American Jewish History 88 (September 2000), pp. 357, 359, fig. 6, notes that dancing is a "traditional way to express joy in Hassidic communities," suggesting that this work represents the continuity of traditional Jewish culture, experience, and memory.
R. Scott Harnsberger. Four Artists of the Stieglitz Circle: A Sourcebook on Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Max Weber. Westport, Conn., 2002, p. 226.
Matthew Baigell. American Artists, Jewish Images. Syracuse, N. Y., 2006, pp. 26, 28–29, 164, fig. 6, discusses the artist's interest in painting images of rabbis; notes that this painting "celebrate[s] Jewish life and its renewal in defiance of German policies" and might serve as a memorial to "the destroyed culture of [Weber's] youth".
Max Weber (American (born Russia), Bialystok 1881–1961 Great Neck, New York)
1920
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