Strong Emotions

The emotionally charged paintings of the Düsseldorf academy of Fine art, where Bendemann went as a student before later becoming its director, was not without controversy in its day. »Mourning Jews« was even the subject of cartoons. Yet this painting had a concrete historical background that explains the sentimental, romantic approach to its subject: Bendemann was the scion of an old Jewish family from Berlin, and here he mourns the oppression of the Jews in Prussia, which he had experienced first-hand.