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Micrography - Extraordinary Artistic Work by a Jewish Artist in America…. Levi David Van Gelder. "Our Creator, Our Former, Almighty Redeemer…". Large Single Sheet Lithograph. Dense English calligraphic text, headers highlighted in gilt. Featuring texts and micro-texts in striking decorative patterns extracted from Psalms, the Jewish liturgy, Ethics of the Fathers, Midrash and Talmud. Illustrated with numerous Biblical scenes as well as Masonic imagery….(New York), c., 1865. The present example is the first Van Gelder produced that incorporated the English language. Dutch-Jewish artist Levi David van Gelder (1816-78) was born in Amsterdam where he worked as a printer and lithographer. In 1864 Van Gelder and his family immigrated to the United States, where he continued to create elaborate panels of ornamental penwork. His distinctive style combined with dense micrographic text resulted in at least four differing large-scale panels, all utilizing Dutch as the dominant language. A fully hand-colored version of this particular lithograph was sold by Kestenbaum & Company (see K Sale 57, lot 310). Levi David Van Gelder (1816-1878) was a Jewish artist and a specialist in ornamental pen work who produced calligraphic Mizrachs in Holland prior to his move to the United States around 1860. This large lithograph (104 x 76 cm) reproduces one of his most astonishing achievements. Tiny scenes of the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, and many others, with accompanying text, are woven intricately together with liturgy from the High Holy Days (both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), and Masonic imagery. It is surrounded by ropes of text, microtext, and elaborate borders formed from both English and Hebrew words. This print is the first known Mizrach by Van Gelder to be made in English and Hebrew, as earlier examples are done in Dutch and Hebrew. For another example produced by van Gelder presently in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), see https://www.americanantiquarian.org/judaic-resources. See also Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam, acc. no. M013071.

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