Salomon Bernstein

Salomon Bernstein was born in 1886 in Uzda

Salomon Bernstein was born on February 11, 1886, in the town of Uzda in the Minsk region of the Russian Empire. His father was a rabbi and head of a yeshiva. He was drawn to painting as a child, but his surroundings did not accept it.

He studied at the Mir Yeshiva, and only at 18 did his father allow him to study art. He studied art in Vilnius and then in Odessa, where Kyriak Kostandi was among his teachers. In Paris he studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts with a scholarship from Baron Rothschild, and also at the Académie Julian, where he won several prizes.

He immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1914 and was soon exiled to Alexandria, where he earned a living from teaching and painting portraits. He returned in 1919 and held a solo show at the Herzliya Gymnasium. Until 1920 he taught at Bezalel, and he later taught at the Mizrachi teachers' seminary.

He took part in the Tower of David exhibition in 1924 and showed his work at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1928. He died in 1968 and was buried in the Trumpeldor Cemetery.