Jacob Kramer (26 December 1892 – 4 February 1962)''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'' was a Russian-born painter who spent all of his working life in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Early life

Jacob Kramer was born in the small town of

Klintsy Klintsy () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Turosna River, southwest of Bryansk. Population: 60,000 (1972). Administrative and municipal status Within the subdivisions of Russia# ...

Chernigov Governorate Chernigov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate (1796-1802), Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Cher ...

, then part of the Russian Empire and now part of Ukraine, into an artistic middle-class Jewish family, who moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

shortly after.Bernard Silver(2000) ''Three Jewish Giants of Leeds'' Jewish Historical Society of England (Leeds) His father, Max, was a painter who had studied at the St Petersburg Fine Art Academy under

Ilya Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is today Ukraine. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russian Empire, Russia in the 19th century. His major works include ''Barge Haulers on the Volga' ...

, and had become a court painter to Baron Günzburg. Kramer's mother, Cecilia, was also artistic being a trained singer who was well known for touring a regional network of theatres established by her father, at which she performed traditional Slavic and Hebrew folk songs. He had three sisters – Leah, Sarah and Millie – and a brother, Isaak. His sister Sarah married the painter William Roberts.

Life in England

In the anti-Jewish events following assassination of the Tsar the family, like many Jews decided to leave. The father. Max, was in poor health so would not pass the health checks for admission to the US, so instead they came to England and settled in Leeds, which had an established Jewish population. When they arrived in the UK is not clear: they do not appear in the 1901 England and Wales census, but Jacob's sister Millie was born in Leeds in February 1904. After living for a short time in the Leylands they moved to a small house in Beecroft Grove, Leopold Street, Chapeltown. In 1902, aged only ten, Kramer ran away from his new home in Leeds, taking various jobs in different parts of the north of England, and even going away to sea for six months, being big for his age. During this sojourn away from his family Kramer attended occasional art classes, but his first formal art education was at Leeds School of Art where he had a scholarship from 1907 until 1913. During this time he was also to become involved in the radical modernist organisation the Leeds Arts Club, which introduced him to the ideas of

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

artists, such as

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

and the spiritual beliefs that came to underpin his work. Writing to his close friend and fellow Arts Club member

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

in 1918, Kramer stated that when he looked at an object he saw both its physical appearance and its spiritual manifestation. His struggle, he claimed, was to escape the physical appearance and only paint the spiritual form. Such ideas came straight from the expressionist and Theosophical spiritualism that dominated the Leeds Arts Club, and show clearly that Kramer was himself an English Expressionist artist.

Slade School of Art and early career

With a scholarship from the Jewish Educational Aid Society, Kramer was able to study at the Slade School of Art from 1913 to 1914. Here be befriended other leading artists of the day, including

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

, David Bomberg and William Roberts, and he was involved in the

Vorticist Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

movement led by Roberts and

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

, although was never really a follower of the style. Nonetheless, several of his woodcuts did appear in the Vorticist literary magazine '' BLAST'', and other periodicals including ''Colour, Rhythm'' and ''Art and Letters''. In London Kramer rapidly became well known in the hedonistic artistic circles that dominated before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and was to be seen frequently at well-known artistic haunts, including the cabaret-club '' The Cave of the Golden Calf, The Cafe Royal'' and ''The Tour Eiffel.'' His first one-man show was in Bradford, and he had several exhibitions in London, as well as Glasgow and Leeds. He also gained a reputation as a portrait artist in addition to his more avant-garde work.

Leeds

Kramer was called up for military service in 1917, serving for two years including in France during the March 1918 campaign. On completion of military service, he returned to Leeds where he became something of a local artistic celebrity. He was naturalised on 16 January 1922. After the collapse of the Leeds Arts Club in 1923 he had numerous schemes to establish a new artistic meeting place in the city, almost all of which came to nothing. The great exception to this was the informal gathering called the Yorkshire Luncheon Club, which met regularly at Whitelock's Ale House in Leeds, and invited some of the leading cultural figures of the 1930s, 40s and 50s to Leeds to speak. He became an established artist, and also taught at the Leeds School of Art. As a portrait painter, his sitters included

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

and

Frederick Delius file:Fritz Delius (1907).jpg, Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius (born Fritz Theodor Albert Delius; ; 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934) was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prospero ...

Kramer was commissioned to illustrate portions of the Soncino edition of the Bible and Prophets He died 4 February 1962, unmarried and with no children, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery at

Gildersome Gildersome is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough 5 miles (7 km) south-west of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire, England. Glidersome forms part of the Heavy Woollen District. Location Historic coun ...

. A memorial service was held in Leeds City Art Gallery. In 1968 Leeds School of Art was renamed Jacob Kramer College (it changed the name in 1993 to Leeds College of Art and Design). His friend

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American and British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1910. Early in his ...

made a bust of him, copies of which can be found in the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in London and at Leeds City Art Gallery. The Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

all hold examples of Kramer's work, but the most extensive collections can be found in Leeds at the Leeds City Art Gallery and

Leeds University The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed ...

Art Gallery. A small selection of personal material belonging to Jacob Kramer was donated to

Leeds Central Library Leeds Central Library is a public library in Leeds. Situated in the city centre, on Calverley Street, it houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection and hosts the Leeds Art Gallery. Services avai ...

by his sister and nephew. The collection contains exhibition catalogues (including one signed by such well-known figures as

); books belonging to Jacob; and a selection of photographs, including many of the wider Kramer family.

References

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kramer, Jacob 20th-century English painters English male painters English Jews Jewish painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 1892 births 1962 deaths Alumni of Leeds Arts University 20th-century English male artists Ukrainian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom

Early life

Life in England

Slade School of Art and early career

Leeds

References

Further reading

External links