Greetings from my new home at the Bancroft and Happy Holidays!

These days and months, preparing for the visible storage of the Magnes Collection in its future home in downtown Berkeley, I am busy researching art and artifacts in the art storage facility where the collection will be kept until its move. Quite prophetically, a couple weeks ago, I was in the storage facility searching our artifacts for materials related to an upcoming exhibition, and I found a wonderful engraving by Moritz Oppenheim, the painter whose portrait of Moses Mendelssohn meeting Kaspar Lavater features prominently in the Magnes Collection.

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn (1856). (The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Accession No. 75.18)

The engraving I just found in the collection, Oppenheim’s The Feast of the Tabernacles, was published in the mid 1800s as part of an artist portfolio.

Moritz Oppenheim, The Feast of the Tabernacles (mid-19th century)

While it may not be used in our upcoming exhibition at The Bancroft Library (stay tuned: the opening will be in March, 2011), I thought it was too lovely and so perfect for the season not to share it.

Have a peaceful New Year, a thoughtful Yom Kippur, and a warm and joyful Sukkot!