Lot 295: Jennings Tofel

Five Works: Death Among the Survivors; Avenger in Jeopardy; Jacob and the Angel; Moses and Joshua; Two Women and One Man
Signed “Tofel” lower right; signed “Tofel” lower left; unsigned; signed “Tofel” lower right; signed “Tofel” lower left.

30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.4 cm); 30 1/8 x 24 in. (76.5 x 61 cm); 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm); 34 7/8 x 42 in. (88.6 x 106.7 cm); 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm).

Oil on canvas.

1949 (Jacob and the Angel)

Painter, poet, and essayist, Jennings Tofel (1891-1959) first exhibited his intense, powerful Expressionist canvases, with their vibrant colors and haunting figures, in the New York of the twenties. He was part of the talented circle of immigrant artists (he had come to America from a little town in Poland in 1905) that included Max Weber, Ben Shahn, William Zorach, Moses and Raphael Soyer. He was protégé of Alfred Stieglitz. His last one-man exhibition was held in New York in 1958; a memorial retrospective was held in 1964. (A. Granick, Jennings Tofel, 1976, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1976, introduction)