Jews Mourning in Exile

The Grieving Jews in Exile, also known as Prisoners jews in Babylon, is the title of a religious history painting by Eduard Bendemann. The group picture shows Jews in Babylonian exile, against the background of a fictitious city view of Babylon. The painting, created in Düsseldorf in 1832, aestheticizes the feeling of grief before the contemporary theme of Jewish emancipation and is one of the key works of the early Düsseldorf School of Painting as well as German painting in the 19th century. Through the painting and its reproductions, the pictorial theme of grieving Jews in Babylonian captivity experienced an upswing in the 19th century, which continued to have an effect until the 20th century. At the turn of the century, an anti-Semitic critic of the picture saw in him a softening, Jewish influence on Düsseldorf painting, Zionists also constructed a concept of Jewish art and identity using the image as an example.