Pinchas Litvinovsky: Colored Tension

David Ben-Gurion's portrait was immortalized numerous times by Pinchas Litvinovsky in the late 1950s. The artist painted the admired leader's likeness based on photographs, with the primary differences between one painting and another manifesting in the color palette and the character of the brushstrokes.

In this painting, Ben-Gurion's determined and resolute appearance is translated into a visual tension between the dominant cool tones and flashes of warm colors. Dynamic, rapid, and broad brushstrokes, along with black contour lines, convey the expression of his face. The spirit of Matisse hovers over this quasi-Fauvist painting. In addition to Ben-Gurion, Litvinovsky frequently sketched and painted portraits of cultural icons from Israel and abroad. Notably, he also painted the portraits of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Pinchas Litvinovsky was born in 1894 in Novo-Georgievsk, Ukraine. In 1912, he immigrated to the Land of Israel but later returned to Russia. In 1919, he immigrated again to Israel. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1980 and passed away in 1985.

Pinchas Litvinovsky, David Ben-Gurion, late 1950s

Oil on cardboard, 49 x 61.5 cm. Courtesy of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Collection.