Pen Yudel Moiseevich

Russian and Belarusian painter, teacher, prominent figure in the “Jewish Renaissance” in the art of the early 20th century. Also known as Marc Chagall's teacher. In 1880 he entered the Academy of Arts. He studied with P. P. Chistyakov and N. A. Laveretsky. After graduating from the Academy (1886), he lived in Dvinsk and Riga, where he met Baron N. A. Korf, who invites the painter to his Vitebsk estate, where the baron’s friends are I. Repin, Yu. Klever and others. In 1891 he settled in Vitebsk and a year later opened a private School of Drawing and Painting there, which existed until 1919 - the first Jewish art school in Russia, which was transformed by Marc Chagall into the Vitebsk Art School, which existed until 1941. Yudel Pan's students were Lev Zevin (in 1917-1918), Raymond Brainin, Lazar Lisitsky, Eva Levina-Rozengolts, Ilya Mazel, Oscar Meshchaninov, Alexander Ahola-Valo, Efim Minin, Osip Zadkine, Marc Chagall, Elena Kabischer, Zaire Azgur, Solomon Yudovin, David Yakerson, Ilya Chashnik. In his paintings, Yudel Peng showed the life of the Jewish poor (“The Watchmaker,” “The Old Tailor,” “The Old Soldier,” “After the Strike”). After 1905, religious motifs appeared in Peng’s work - “The Jewish Rabbi”, “The Last Saturday”. The artist’s works are kept in the Vitebsk Art Museum and the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus.