Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Emmanuel Levy artist

Emmanuel Levy was born the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants in Hightown, Manchester, England in 1900 and studied at Manchester School of Art with L. S. Lowry, before moving to St Martin’s School of Art in London. Although he experimented with Cubism and Surrealism, Levy abandoned these styles in favour of naturalism, specialising in figurative work exploring the human condition.

Born: 1900 Hightown, Manchester, England

Died: 1986 London, England


Biography

Painter Emmanuel Levy was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Hightown, Manchester, England in 1900. Like his slightly older contemporary, Jacob Kramer, Levy was one of a small cohort of Jewish artists, whose families, fleeing persecution, restrictive legislation and economic hardship, settled in the north of England as part of a wider wave of Jewish migration to Britain at the close of the nineteenth century. Hightown was immortalised by the Jewish writer Louis Golding in his best-selling novel Magnolia Street (1932), which Levy later adapted as a radio play. Levy’s father was the beadle at the Great Synagogue, Cheetham Hill in Manchester and the young Levy attended the local Jews’ Free School, before studying at Manchester School of Art under Adolphe Valette (c. 1918) together with L. S. Lowry (whose portrait he drew), at St Martin’s School of Art in London, and in Paris. He returned to Manchester for his first solo show in 1925. His early work included Jewish subjects, such as the movingThe Mourners (Sitting Shiva)(1928, Ben Uri Collection). Executed in a semi-Cubist manner, it was painted following the death of his father and showed the Jewish ceremony of sitting Shiva in which members of the immediate family gather to mourn for seven days following the burial. In 1928 Levy was appointed a special instructor in life drawing at Manchester University School of Architecture upon the recommendation of Valette, whom he succeeded. He also gave popular public demonstrations in portrait painting. From 1929, for several years, he was Art Critic for Manchester City News and the Evening News and his 60-year career was so closely associated with his native city that Lord Ardwick described him as ‘a Manchester man through and through. But’, he continued, ‘there is nothing provincial or even distinctly English in his work. He is a citizen of the world’ (Out of Chaos, p. 96).

In 1932 Levy was elected a member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. Although he experimented with Cubism and Surrealism, Levy abandoned these styles in favour of naturalism, specialising in figurative work exploring the human condition. His wife, Ursula Leo (1915-1984), one of his pupils and a painter in her own right, was a German-Jewish refugee from Nazism and during the Second World, he painted his powerful Crucifixion (1942), a cri-de-coeur against Jewish persecution under the Nazis in mainland Europe, and which was exhibited that year in the Manchester Society of Modern Painters' Exhibition, Salford City Art Gallery (1942). In the painting, the Christian reference, 'INRI' is replaced by the word 'JUDE' in blood red paint, above the figure. Levy held six solo exhibitions in Manchester between 1925 and 1963, with further solo shows in London, including at Ben Uri (1953, 1978 and 1989), where his work was also shown from 1935 onwards in numerous group shows. In a review of Ben Uri’s 1953 solo show, the Manchester Guardian art critic Stephen Bone wrote that Levy's portraits ‘show clearly that [he] has what are perhaps the two most essential gifts of a portraitist – he can draw with confidence and lucidity and he has a keen eye for individual character […] in all his work [he] gives an impression of great sincerity and artistic integrity (Bone 1953, p. 5). The Jewish Chronicle praised his vigorous brushwork as well as his sense of colour and volume. Retrospectives were held at Salford City Art Gallery (1948), Fieldborne Galleries, London (1976) and Stockport Art Gallery (1982). Emmanuel Levy died in London, England in 1986. His work is represented in UK Collections including the Ben Uri Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Salford Museum and Art Gallery and the Whitworth. In 2014 Ben Uri Gallery curated a posthumous retrospective, Made in Manchester: Emmanuel Levy, at the Manchester Jewish Museum.

Related books

  • Monica Bohm-Duchen, 'A Jewish Jesus: Monica Bohm-Duchen Explores Christian Imagery in the Work of Jewish Artists', Art and Christianity, Winter 2020, pp. 2-9
  • Sarah MacDougall, 'Emmanuel Levy', Encylopedia of the Bible and its Reception, (de Gruyter online, 2018)
  • Sarah MacDougall, Rachel Dickson, Out of Chaos: Ben Uri: 100 Years in London (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2015)
  • Sarah MacDougall, Made in Manchester: the Art of Emmanuel Levy (Jewish Museum Manchester/Ben Uri Gallery, 2013)
  • Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Camden (London: The Public Catalogue Foundation, 2013), p. 32
  • David Breuer-Weil, 'Emmanuel Levy, Crucifixion, 1942', in Nathaniel Hepburn ed., Cross Purposes: Shock and Contemplation in Images of the Crucifixion, exh. cat. (London: Mascalls Gallery/Ben Uri Gallery, 2010)
  • 'Emmanuel Levy', Jewish Chronicle, 20 March 1953, p. 8
  • Stephen Bone, 'An Outstanding Portraitist: Works by Emmanuel Levy', Manchester Guardian, 17 March 1953, p. 5
  • A.C.S., 'Emmanuel Levy', Manchester Guardian, 30 December 1952, p. 3
  • 'Emmanuel Levy: A Salford Exhibition', Manchester Guardian, 19 April 1948, p. 3
  • Jan Gordon, 'Emmauel Levy', The Observer, 9 January 1938, p. 12

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Manchester Academy of Fine Arts (member)
  • Manchester School of Art (student)
  • Manchester University School of Architecture (teacher)
  • St Martin’s School of Art (student)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Out of Chaos: Ben Uri - 100 Years in London, Somerset House, London (2015)
  • Made in Manchester: The Art of Emmanuel Levy (1900-1986), Manchester Jewish Museum (2014–2015)
  • Cross Purposes: Shock and Contemplation in Images of the Crucifixion, Ben Uri Gallery, Boundary Road, London (2010)
  • Homeless and Hidden 1, Ben Uri Gallery, Boundary Road, London (2008)
  • Recent Acquisitions 2001-2006, Ben Uri Gallery , Boundary Road, London (2006)
  • The Modern and the New: An Examination of the Permanent Collection alongside New Works by British, European and American Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery, Boundary Road, London (2004)
  • Director’s Choice: Highlights from the Ben Uri Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Gallery, Boundary Road, London (2003)
  • Emmanuel Levy 1900-86 - A Memorial Exhibition, Ben Uri Gallery, Dean Street, London (1989)
  • Emmanuel Levy: Paintings from 1935-1950, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester (1979)
  • Paintings from the Ben Uri Art Gallery, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Dorset (1970)
  • Paintings by Emmanuel Levy, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Portman Street, London (1953)
  • Emmanuel Levy, Salford Art Gallery, Manchester (1952)
  • Paintings by Emmanuel Levy, Brunner Library, Northwich (1952)
  • Ben Uri Collection of Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings, Ben Uri Art Gallery, Portman Street, London (1946)
  • Manchester Society of Modern Painters' Exhibition, Salford City Art Gallery (1942)
  • group exhibition, Withworth Gallery, Manchester (1938)
  • Emmanuel Levy, Foyles Art Gallery, London (1937)
  • Annual Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Jewish Art Gallery, Great Windmill Street, London (1936)
  • Israel Zangwill Memorial Exhibition, Ben Uri Jewish Art Gallery, Woburn House, London (1935)
  • Annual Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Jewish Art Gallery, Woburn House, London (1935)
  • solo show, Manchester City Gallery (1924)
  Emmanuel Levy
   
Ben Uri collection

Emmanuel Levy in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Emmanuel Levy]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Emmanuel Levy] in the Ben Uri Library