JOHN HENRY AMSCHEWITZ (1882 – 1942)
Mischief
year unknown
sketch
21 x 21 cm
Oriental Still Life
year unknown
oil painting
59 x 79.5 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Painter, muralist and illustrator John Henry Amshewitz (also spelled ‘Amschewitz’ in some sources) was born into a Jewish family in Ramsgate, England. His father, Asher Amschejewitz, an Orthodox rabbi and scholar, born in Vilna, had come to the Montefiore College in Ramsgate in 1867 as a scholar in residence. Amshewitz won an art scholarship to study at the Royal Academy School from 1902–07, under the direction of John Singer Sargent, Sir George Clausen and Solomon J Solomon. While still a student, he won several important civic commissions and he was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1914.
In 1916, after being rejected for military service (owing to an injury incurred during the creation of the murals for the Centenary Memorial at the Liverpool City Hall), he accepted a theatrical role in a production for a six-month tour of South Africa, and stayed on for six years. He held his first exhibition in South Africa in 1916, followed by many others, and was elected member of the South African Society of Artists in 1917.
In 1918, he married Sarah Briana Judes in Johannesburg (after his death, she went on to publish The Paintings of JH Amshewitz (London, 1951)). He founded the Johannesburg Sketch Club the same year and, as President, served as a mentor and critic to other Johannesburg artists, also working as cartoonist for the Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Times.
He returned to England in 1922, becoming friendly with Walter Sickert, and carried out a mural commission for South Africa House. He returned to his Johannesburg studio in 1936, where he was commissioned to create a mural for Pretoria City Hall in 1938.
His work is represented in the South Africa National Art Gallery in Cape Town and the Johannesburg Art Gallery, as well as the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum in London.