Welcoming the Sabbath – 🏛️ Currently on Museum Exhibition

Cultural, Historical & Educational Context: The Lighting of the Sabbath Candles „Welcoming the Sabbath” captures one of the most sacred, intimate rituals in Jewish domestic life — the kindling of the Shabbat lights (Hadlik Ner shel Shabbat). In Ashkenazi tradition, it was the woman’s sacred privilege and duty to usher peace, light, and holiness into the home on Friday evening before sundown.

From an educational and spiritual perspective, Marek Hausmann documents the precise halakhic gesture: after kindling the wicks, the woman draws the light inward with circular hand motions and covers her face and eyes to recite the blessing. This ritual practice ensures that the blessing is recited prior to deriving pleasure from the illuminated candles, greeting the „Sabbath Queen” and the Divine Presence (Shekhinah). It marks the transition from worldly labor to complete spiritual serenity (Shalom Bayit).

Visual Analysis, Authentic Colors, and Mystical Chiaroscuro The composition is anchored by the vertical, devotional posture of the woman’s hands covering her eyes. Her expressive, working hands glow with intense golden-orange, amber radiance, directly reflecting the candle fire:

• Candlesticks and Flames: In the immediate foreground, two thick wax candles in warm honey tones burn steadily in silver-gray metallic holders reflecting cool blue highlights, serving as the sole source of illumination.

• Costume and Atmosphere: She is draped in a dark navy-black garment and a patterned headscarf textured with muted violets, grays, and cool blues.

• Chiaroscuro Contrast: The background recedes into velvety black, deep indigo, and midnight purple, accentuating the luminous golden skin and the sacred drama of the blessing.

Signed lower right in a vibrant turquoise-blue („HAUSMANN”). „Welcoming the Sabbath” stands as a painted Kaddish honoring the matriarchs of the shtetl, whose quiet devotion sustained the sacred light of Jewish continuity through generations.

Technical Specifications:

• Title: Welcoming the Sabbath / Powitanie Szabatu

• Series: Kaddish for Shtetl (from the 22-canvas cycle)

• Artist: Marek Hausmann

• Medium: Oil on canvas

• Dimensions: 60 × 80 cm (approx. 23.6 × 31.5 in)

• Year: 2026

• Signature: Signed lower right „HAUSMANN” (in turquoise-blue)

• Authenticity: Accompanied by an official Certificate of Authenticity (COA) signed by the artist.