Art Nouveau Illustrations of Ephraim Moses Lilien

Jugendstil

Ephraim Moses Lilien was born on May 23, 1874, in Drohobych, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is located in modern-day Ukraine. In his youth, he apprenticed with a sign maker. From 1889 to 1893, Lilien studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, an institution then headed by the prominent Polish painter Jan Matejko. In 1899, he moved to Berlin, where he joined the artists’ group Die Kommenden.

Lilien worked primarily in etching and illustration, and he became one of the leading contributors to Jugend magazine, the publication from which the Jugendstil movement—German version of Art Nouveau—takes its name. He was the most prominent Jewish artist associated with Jugendstil. Aside from his works for Jugend, he also produced illustrations for books, often exploring Jewish subjects. This image comes from a set of works created for Lieder des Ghetto (Songs of the Ghetto) by Morris Rosenfeld.

Zionism

In addition to his work as an artist, Lilien was also an early supporter of the Zionist movement. He famously took an iconic photograph of Theodor Herzl during the Fifth Zionist Conference in Basel. He made multiple trips to Ottoman Palestine over the course of his life as well. For one such trip in 1906, he traveled with Lithuanian artist and sculptor Boris Schatz to assist in setting up the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Lilien also designed the school’s emblem.

Herzl also served as something of a muse for Lilien. To Lilien, Herzl embodied the strong, modern Jewish man. This was truly a rebellion against the antisemitic stereotypes that abounded in Europe at the time. Here, Lilien presents Herzl as a muscular, Moses-like figure with chiseled features. Indeed, Lilien had a talent for taking traditional Jewish motifs and reinterpreting them in a contemporary style.

Sexuality

Beyond his depictions of Herzl as a muscular stand-in for biblical heroes, Lilien explored themes of sexuality in many of his works. To Lilien, women were equals and in control of their own sexuality, not mere objects of the male gaze. Emancipation in the form of early Zionism should also coincide with sexual liberation. For example, the illustration The Silent Song offers a woman in full control of her sexuality. Tragically, Lilien suffered a heart attack on July 18, 1925, passing away at just 51 years old.