Abraham Manevich (1881–1942), painter and graphic artist who is little-known in Lithuania, was born in Mstislavl, Belarus, to a religious family. As a teenager, he worked as a house painter. In 1900, having received his father’s blessing, Abraham Manevich went for studies at the Kiev Art School, where he studied with Kazimir Malevich and other famous modernist artists of the beginning of the 20th century. After successfully completing his studies in Kiev in 1905 and having received a scholarship from the patron Baron V. Ginzburg, Manevich left to study at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts from which he graduated in 1907. While studying in Munich, he held his first solo exhibition. ‘Manevich’s landscapes are not only paintings, but also windows that reflect the soul of the artist’, wrote German art critics of the time. Art critics gave very positive reviews of the exhibition in Paris held by the painter in 1913. The artist's early artwork created until 1910 was mainly portraits and landscapes, where the influence of Isaak Levitan's lyricism was clearly felt. After 1910, features of the Munich and Vienna School of Art started dominating in Manevich’s landscapes and portraits. His colours turned brighter and the strokes of his paintbrush became looser.
The artist returned to Ukraine in 1917 with solid professional experience and became one of the first professors of the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts. During this period, the painter created extremely sensitive landscapes, perpetuating the beauty of the land where he was then destined to live.
In 1922, to escape the civil war, Manevich with his family went to Warsaw and later to New York. In the United States, he successfully continued his creative activities: painted portraits, landscapes of the American province, including scenes from the daily life of farmers. Albert Einstein highly appreciated the artwork created by Manevich and even acquired several of his works. The painter's artwork can be found in many museums in Europe and the USA. Manevich’s lyrical landscape Market in Berdychiv, painted in 1903, was handed over to the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History in 1992.
Market in Berdychiv. 1903. Cardboard, oil. 28 x 44. Acc. No VŽM 3656
Prepared by Irina Nikitina, conservationist-researcher of the VGMJH art collections
© From the holdings of VGMJH
© Photo courtesy of Paulius Račiūnas
