Napthali Kornbluth was born in 1914 in London’s East End to orthodox Polish-Jewish parents, studying art at evening classes variously at Hackney Technical School, Central School of Arts and Crafts, and Cass School of Art in the 1970s. He exhibited at the East End Academy from the 1930s at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and had solo exhibitions at Campbell & Franks (1980), Sir John Cass (1986) and Lamont Gallery (1988). Much of his subject matter was inspired by his own East End neighbourhood, often featuring the hidden canals and industrial riversides of east London.
Draughtsman and etcher Nathaniel (né Napthali) Kornbluth was born to orthodox Polish-Jewish parents in London's East End on 25 October 1914. Owing to parental opposition to his chosen career as an artist, he worked in the wholesale menswear ‘rag’ trade during the day, while studying art at evening classes variously at Hackney Technical School (1933), Central School of Arts and Crafts (1934–7), under W. P. Robbins, Paul Drury and James Fitton, where he specialised in etching, and at the Cass School of Art in the 1970s.
He participated in open exhibitions of the East End Academy during the 1930s, which were held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, situated directly across the road from his family business. Much of Kornbluth’s subject matter was inspired by his own neighborhood, often featuring the hidden canals and industrial riversides and docklands of east London. In a review of the 1936 East End Academy exhibition, theJewish Chronicle noted that the ‘Black and whites are dominated by two very fine etchings by N. Kornbluth – 'Waterloo Bridge Demolition’ (No. 263) and ‘Regent's Canal Dock’ (No. 266). The heavy masses of the former are carefully observed from a well-chosen angle, and in the latter he achieves the same sense of ‘body’ with clarity and lightness’ (S. 1936, p. 10). Examples of both etchings are now in the British Museum collection. The Tribune singled out Kornbluth’s drawings from a later East End Academy show, noting that ‘his lithograph Return from Spain, is a vivid reminder of the demonstration which greeted our returned comrades’ (Scroggie 1939, p. 10). The work, representing the Major Attlee Section of the International Brigade leaving Victoria Station and approaching Vauxhall Bridge, can also be found in the British Museum collection. Aligning with his Jewish heritage, he also showed with Ben Uri over a forty year period, from the Annual Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists (1935, 1936, 1937) to the annual open exhibitions in the 1970s (1970, 1973, 1974). In his later years, studying art again at Sir John Cass School of Art, he held solo exhibitions at Campbell & Franks (1980), Sir John Cass (1986), and Lamont Gallery (1988).
Having moved to north west London, Nathaniel Kornbluth died in London, England on 18 April 1997. His work is held in UK public collections including the Ben Uri, British Museum, Guildhall Library and National Maritime Museum. Posthumously, his work featured in Ben Uri's survey exhibition Exodus: Masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection held at the Bushey Museum, Hertfordshire in 2018.
Napthali Kornbluth in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Napthali Kornbluth]
Publications related to [Napthali Kornbluth] in the Ben Uri Library