Orthodox Boys, 1948, by Bernard Perlin (1918–2014), 30in by 40in, Tate Collection.
Peter Blake says: ‘I first saw Orthodox Boys at the Tate Gallery in the 1950s, when I was working on paintings like Boys With Badges while at the Royal College of Art. It was exciting to find a fellow artist working on similar themes to what I was doing. My interest extended to other Magic Realists, such as Ben Shahn, and it was wonderful to be aware of these paintings being made across the Atlantic. I was lucky enough to meet both Bernard Perlin and Shahn.
Sir Peter Blake is an artist, best known for the sleeve design for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
John McEwen comments on Orthodox Boys: The painting Orthodox Boys—two Orthodox Jewish teenagers in front of a newspaper kiosk outside the Canal Street subway in New York—is considered Perlin’s masterpiece. The furtive look of the boy opening a hebrew text is explained by the anti-Semitic sentiments of some of the graffiti.
Bernard Perlin was born in Richmond, Virginia, USA, a son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. his father and grandfather were tailors. At a teacher’s suggestion, he enrolled in the New York School of Design and, having completed a travelling scholarship, worked for the US Office of War Information. his government posters, such as Let ’em have it. Buy extra bonds, featuring a GI hurling a hand grenade, remain well known.
The style and content of Orthodox Boys shows the influence of Ben Shahn, a wartime work colleague. Shahn, 20 years his senior, was an ardent advocate of Social Realism, an established international art genre reanimated in the USA by the 1930s Depression. Perlin also worked for Life and Fortune magazines.
In peacetime, he dropped Social Realism for Italy and beautiful landscapes, later retreating to Connecticut to escape the New York art world and the new fad of what he considered ego-driven Abstract expressionism: ‘Their painting is millionaire art. Who else can afford it? Or live with it?’ he hated parties, ‘where the person who’s talking to you is looking over his shoulder to find someone who’s more important’ and, for a period, he even gave up painting altogether.
Orthodox Boys was presented to the Tate in 1950 by the art impresario Lincoln Kirstein. It was recently on view, but is now back in storage.
My favourite painting: Robert Kime
Robert Kime shares his fondness for New Year Snow by Ravilious
My Favourite Painting: Will Gompertz
BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz chooses a Cézanne as his favourite painting.
-
Six rural properties with space, charm and endless views, as seen in Country LifeWe take a look at some of the best houses to come to the market via Country Life in the past week.
-
Exploring the countryside is essential for our wellbeing, but Right to Roam is going backwardsCampaigners in England often point to Scotland as an example of how brilliantly Right to Roam works, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, says Patrick Galbraith.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
