Plum Street Temple, 1866, oil on canvas, Cincinnati Skirball Museum; Gift of Audrey Skirball Kenis, granddaughter of the artist, 41.259

Verbal Description

Hello, my name is Dr. Julie Aronson. I am the curator of American paintings, sculpture, and drawings; and the curator of Henry Mosler Behind the Scenes: In Celebration of the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial. I will be reading the verbal description for Plum Street Temple.

This oil on canvas of Plum Street Temple was painted in 1866. It is in the collection of the Cincinnati Skirball Museum. It was a gift from Audrey Skirball Kenis, granddaughter of the artist. Its accession number is 41.259

The painting Plum Street Temple is an oil on canvas. It measures 36 and 3/16 inches by 31 and 3/16 inches. The temple is set against a bright blue sky with wisps of white clouds and is located at the corner of two streets. The front or façade of the building is brightly lit. People, dressed in mid-19^th -century clothing, are seen walking in front of and into the main doors of the synagogue.

The temple encompasses most of the painting. The façade is composed of three rectangular sections. The center section is taller than the two on each side by at least a story. All three are decorated with pointed arches that are repeated on the doorways, of which there are three, one in each section. The central section toward the front of the building is crowned by two thin towers. Along the left side, which is visible in the painting, arched windows line both the center and the shorter left sections. Towards the rear of the left part of the temple is a domed structure, also with arched windows. The entire building is an ochre stone color, and the windows are burgundy. In the background, red brick buildings are apparent.

Label Text

Hello, my name is Dr. Julie Aronson. I am the curator of American paintings, sculpture, and drawings; and the curator of Henry Mosler Behind the Scenes: In Celebration of the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial. I will be reading the label for Plum Street Temple.

This oil on canvas of Plum Street Temple was painted in 1866. It is in the collection of the Cincinnati Skirball Museum. It was a gift from Audrey Skirball Kenis, granddaughter of the artist. Its accession number is 41.259

Mosler painted Plum Street Temple shortly after the building’s completion at the corner of Eighth and Plum Streets in downtown Cincinnati. By the mid-1860s, under Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the influential advocate of Reform Judaism, the B’nai Yeshurun Congregation had grown by leaps and bounds and required a new home. Designed by the architect James Keyes Wilson, the striking edifice, officially the Isaac M. Wise Temple, is in the Moorish or "Alhambra" style to allude to a culturally rich period of Spanish Jewish history.

We do not know for whom Mosler made this painting, one of his few works with a Jewish connection. He expertly chose a corner vantage point to provide maximum information about the architecture and make the building look as impressive as possible. This angle, the brightly lit façade, the silhouette against the sky, and the tiny scale of the people at the entrance combine to emphasize the celebrated new synagogue’s importance.

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