Paul Jeffay was born Saul Yaffie in Glasgow, Scotland in 1898 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents who had fled pogroms in their homeland. Jeffay studied at Glasgow School of Art between 1912 and 1919, including under Estonian-born sculptor Benno Schotz. After the First World War Jeffay moved to Paris, settling first in Montmartre and later in Fontenay-aux-Roses, adopting the pseudonym 'Paul Jeffay' for his paintings and engravings, often of Jewish subjects.
The painter-engraver Paul Jeffay was born Saul Yaffie in Glasgow, Scotland on 29 April 1898 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents fleeing pogroms in their homeland, triggered by the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. His mother, Kate Yaffie (née Karkonoski) and father, Bernard Yaffie, a master tailor, were among the first generation of 20th century Jews to settle in the Gorbals, which became the heart of the Glasgow Jewish community. Jeffay studied at Glasgow School of Art between 1912 and 1919 (one of only three other Jewish students who attended at that time), winning numerous prizes. His tutors included the Estonian-born sculptor Benno Schotz, who recalled that on the outbreak of the First World War, Yaffie won a competition for a poster to be displayed in Glasgow tramcars depicting a woman and child fleeing from a fire. Jeffay's studies were interrupted by his voluntary war service (1916–17), and after briefly being stationed in the same Jewish battalion as sculptor Jacob Epstein, he served in the King's Own Scottish Borderers.
Following the Armistice, Saul returned briefly to Glasgow, before moving to Paris and settling in Montmartre around 1919. He exhibited with the Salon des Indépendants during the 1920s and 1930s, adopting the pseudonym 'Paul Jeffay', and also working under the names Paul Lebeau, and Solomon/Saül Yaffie/Yafie. In 1930, he founded his own studio in Fontenay-aux-Roses, where he remained (with the exception of the Second World War years, when he briefly lived in Manchester) for the rest of his life. Between 1933 and 1939, Jeffay made three prolonged visits to Poland, studying and sketching the Jewish community in the Warsaw Ghetto; the resulting album, Visages du Ghetto (Ben Uri Collection), comprises a series of fourteen etchings, sensitively recording a way of life that was to be swept away by the Holocaust. The German Army looted Jeffay's studio during the Second World War, and only a small portion of his work has survived. Paul Jeffay died in Paris, France in 1957. His work is represented in numerous UK collections including the Ben Uri Collection and the Kirklees Museums and Galleries. A set of the engravings from the 'Visages du Ghetto' series was shown, along with the original drawings at an exhibition organised by Ben Uri at at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in 1994, entitled 'Visages du Ghetto: Paintings, Drawings and Etchings of Pre-War Jewish Europe by Paul Jeffay (1898-1957)' and a set of prints was afterwards gifted to the Ben Uri Collection by the artist's grandson.
Paul Jeffay in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Paul Jeffay]
Publications related to [Paul Jeffay] in the Ben Uri Library