John Henry Amshewitz was born into a Jewish family in Ramsgate, England in 1882 (his father had immigrated from the Russian Empire 16 years prior). After studying at the Royal Academy Schools (1902–07), and following time spent in South Africa, Amshewitz participated widely in the UK's art scene as a painter, muralist and illustrator, and was an exhibiting member of many art societies.
Painter, muralist and illustrator, John Henry Amshewitz was born into a Jewish family in Ramsgate, England on 19 December 1882. His father, Asher Amschejewitz, an Orthodox rabbi and scholar, born in Vilna, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania) had come to Montefiore College in Ramsgate in Kent in 1867 as a scholar in residence. Amshewitz won an art scholarship to study at the Royal Academy Schools from 1902–07, under the direction of notable society painters, John Singer Sargent, Sir George Clausen and Solomon J. Solomon (the latter, one of the very few Jewish Royal Academicians). While still a student, Amshewitz won several important civic commissions, including four murals for the Centenary Memorial at Liverpool City Hall in 1907, and a mural for the Royal Exchange in London in 1910. His friendship with 'Whitechapel Boy', Isaac Rosenberg led to a portrait of the young Anglo-Jewish poet-painter in 1909 (Dickson and MacDougall, 2008). He also illustrated a number of works for the noted.3. writer Israel Zangwill (widely known as the Jewish Dickens), including his Ghetto Comedies (1907). In 1914 Amshewitz was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA). In the same year he illustrated a a cartoon map of the conflict in Europe, issued by London publishers, Geographia, who later published an edition of the Haggadah (the text read during the Seder meal accompanying the Jewish festival of Passover (1920)), illustrated by Amshewitz.
In 1916, after being rejected for military service (owing to an injury incurred during the creation of the Liverpool murals), he accepted a theatrical role in a production for a six-month tour of South Africa, staying 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 published The Paintings of J. H. Amshewitz in 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 painter Walter Sickert, and carried out a mural commission for South Africa House.
In the later 1920s and 1930s, Amshewitz exhibited widely in London. He was included in the South Africa Section of the Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924, showed with the International Society of Sculptors, Painters & Gravers at the Royal Academy in 1925, with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1924 and 1926, and as a member of The New English Art Club at their Suffolk Street Galleries in 1933 and 1934. In 1927, he held his first solo exhibition, Paintings by J. H. Amshewitz, at the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street; his portraits on display were described by the Jewish Chronicle as showing ‘an excellent understanding of human nature and a sympathetic and keen ability for expression’ (F. L. B., 1927). Acknowledging his Jewish heritage, he showed with Ben Uri at the Society's inaugural Opening of the Ben Uri Jewish Art Gallery and an Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists at Woburn House in 1934 and in Ben Uri's Annual Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists in 1935. He also exhibited under the auspices of the Royal Society of British Artists several times between 1928 and 1932, and in the Royal Academy's annual exhibitions in 1924, 1930 and 1933. He returned to his Johannesburg studio in 1936, where he was commissioned to create a mural for Pretoria City Hall in 1938.
John Henry Amshewitz died in South Africa on 6 December 1942. His work is represented in several UK public collections including the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull and the Ben Uri Collection, British Library and the V&A, London. His print, The Wedding (1925), held in the Ben Uri Collection has featured posthumously in various Ben Uri exhibitions, including the Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1851-1951 (1951) and, more recently, in Whitechapel at War: Isaac Rosenberg and his Circle (2008).
John Henry Amshewitz in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [John Henry Amshewitz]
Publications related to [John Henry Amshewitz] in the Ben Uri Library