Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1995
Exhibition HistoryPublished References
Max Weber
(American, 1881–1961)
Rabbi Reading (Pensioned)
1919–20
Color woodcut (made from the basswood of a honeycomb container) on greyish-ivory China paper
Image: 4 1/2 x 2 in. (11.4 x 5.1 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. (25.7 x 17.5 cm)
Mount: 11 x 7 in. (27.9 x 17.8 cm)
Mat: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. (25.7 x 17.5 cm)
Mount: 11 x 7 in. (27.9 x 17.8 cm)
Mat: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1995.50
SignedIn graphite lower right beneath image: MAX WEBER
InterpretationIn Max Weber’s Rabbi Reading (Pensioned), a seated man appears engrossed in a book. The flat, crudely outlined shapes that form the image are a dull, mottled black, except for the figure’s striking red hat and the tan tones that graduate from the black to suggest the flesh tones of his hands and his face with its spiky fringe of beard. The animated negative or unprinted spaces between the areas of black ink outline some forms, such as the legs, or suggest highlights, as in the face and shoulders. In the background, series of jagged, straight, and curved lines hint at a window, billowing curtains or clouds, or perhaps images of the word-pictures stimulated in the imagination of the avid reader by his text. The stark economy and directness of Weber’s image gives visible form to the mental energy the rabbi brings to the act of reading.
Rabbi Reading (Pensioned) is one of a series of experimental woodcut prints Weber made in the winter of 1919–1920, a group that began with Head and Shoulders of Figure (TF 1995.49). The prints were inspired by the wooden box enclosing a gift of honeycomb. Weber adapted the soft basswood slats of the box as a surface for carving a group of twenty-four woodcuts. He then inked these with oil paint and “hand-printed” them by placing them beneath a sheet of paper on the floor, weighted by a book. The crenellated edge of the honeycomb basswood container was cleverly incorporated at the bottom edge of the image. This print exists in both single-color and multicolor impressions.
Rabbi Reading (Pensioned) is one of a series of experimental woodcut prints Weber made in the winter of 1919–1920, a group that began with Head and Shoulders of Figure (TF 1995.49). The prints were inspired by the wooden box enclosing a gift of honeycomb. Weber adapted the soft basswood slats of the box as a surface for carving a group of twenty-four woodcuts. He then inked these with oil paint and “hand-printed” them by placing them beneath a sheet of paper on the floor, weighted by a book. The crenellated edge of the honeycomb basswood container was cleverly incorporated at the bottom edge of the image. This print exists in both single-color and multicolor impressions.
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1995
Exhibition History
Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.
Rubenstein, Daryl R. Max Weber: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Graphic Work. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1980. No. 15, p. 118.
Max Weber: Prints and Color Variations. (exh. booklet, Smithsonian Institution, National Collection of Fine Arts). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, National Collection of Fine Arts, 1980.
Jacobowitz, Ellen S. and George H. Marcus.American Graphics: 1860–1940; Selected from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. No. 46, p. 48.
Max Weber: Prints and Color Variations. (exh. booklet, Smithsonian Institution, National Collection of Fine Arts). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, National Collection of Fine Arts, 1980.
Jacobowitz, Ellen S. and George H. Marcus.American Graphics: 1860–1940; Selected from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. No. 46, p. 48.