The Prayer of the Polish Jews, from Au Pied du Sinaï

The Prayer of the Polish Jews, from Au Pied du Sinaï is a lithograph created in 1897 by the celebrated French artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). This highly accomplished print was executed on grayish-ivory wove chine, a technique that utilizes a thin, delicate paper adhered to a heavier support sheet. The specific choice of medium accentuates the deep blacks and expressive line work, enhancing the contrast and providing a characteristic texture that defined Lautrec’s mature style in graphic arts.

The artwork depicts a solemn scene of Polish Jewish men engaged in prayer, rendered with Lautrec’s characteristic economy of line and strong compositional force. While the artist is best known for his chronicles of the cabarets and theaters of Montmartre, this piece demonstrates the versatility of the French master, who here applies his observational drawing skills to a serious, ethnographic subject. The image was commissioned as one of ten lithographs illustrating Georges Clemenceau’s 1898 book, Au Pied du Sinaï, which chronicled the author’s travels and impressions of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Lautrec successfully translated his distinct visual shorthand, typically used for depicting actors and dancers, into an intimate portrayal of religious devotion.

This work is a significant example of Lautrec’s later output in the medium of prints, demonstrating his technical fluency in the lithographic process to capture subtle tonal variations and sharp contrasts. The Prayer of the Polish Jews remains a key piece for understanding the diverse subjects the artist tackled when working outside the sphere of Parisian popular culture. This print currently resides in the respected collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and is widely studied by scholars interested in 19th-century graphic arts.