One of the outstanding Jewish artists of the 19^th century. He was born in Drohobycz, Galicia, then under Austrian rule, and studied in Lvov, Vienna, Munich and Krakow which became his home. A Polish patriot, his early pictures were on Polish nationalist themes. He then moved to Jewish subjects.

His most famous work ‘Jews at Prayer on Yom Kippur’ is in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He was extremely prolific but only a fraction of his works was completed. His ‘Jesus teaching in the Temple’ was revolutionary in artistic representation inasmuch as Jesus was portrayed as a Jew preaching to fellow-Jews.

He died in Krakow at the age of 23. His brother, Leopold Gottlieb, also a noted painter, was born five years after Maurycy's death.

 

Bibliography:

Nehama GURALNIK: In the Flower of Youth. Pp. 227, 85 leaves of plates. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1991