Portrait of a Rabbi

William Auerbach-Levy was born William Auerbach in Brest-Litovsk, Russia in 1889. His family moved to the United States when Auerbach was about five years old, and adopted the name Levy. Auerbach-Levy gained notoriety as both a caricaturist and a fine painter and printmaker. Auerbach-Levy's caricatures appeared frequently in The New Yorker, The New York Post, The Brooklyn Eagle, Colliers Magazine, Esquire Magazine and other popular publications of the time.

Concurrent with his caricature work, Auerbach-Levy continued producing fine art, for which he was given many awards throughout his career, including the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship in 1929. Auerbach-Levy regularly used Jewish subject matter in his work. He created landscapes of religious sites and depictions of ritual practices, but primarily focused on individual portraiture of Biblical characters or Rabbis, such as the seated scholar seen here.