Hyman Bloom, one of the most inventive artists of the 1940s and 50s to explore the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, has been overlooked in most histories of 20th-century American painting. Born on the border of Latvia and Lithuania, Bloom emigrated with his family to Boston in 1920, settling in the Jewish community of the West End. He was trained as an artist at the MFA and with the artists Harold Zimmerman and Denman Ross. A student of philosophy and spiritualism, Bloom imbued his work with reflections on the nature of light, life, and death, layering them with transcendent meaning. Recognized by MoMA in 1942 as one of the country’s important emerging artists, Bloom enjoyed early patronage and notice, however a variety of factors (the rise of abstraction, regional bias, and his sometimes-difficult subjects) combined to obscure his impressive achievements. The MFA’s 2019 exhibition of his work sought to redress that omission, giving the museum the platform to become the collection of record for this important Boston artist. Our intention has started to bear fruit, and Bloom’s paintings now feature prominently in our galleries.

Bloom was not a portraitist, and this rare likeness of Nathan M. “Jerry” Goldberg (1912-1965) is a tribute to their friendship. Jerry Goldberg, a Boston businessman involved with the apparel industry, frequented the Swetzoff Gallery on Newbury Street, where Bloom exhibited, and Goldberg and his wife Sophie became collectors of Bloom’s work and friends of the painter’s. With their shared immigrant history in Boston’s West End, self-education, and mutual love of art, Bloom and Jerry Goldberg developed a particular bond; they met every weekend for lunch and gallery visits, and Goldberg became a major patron of Bloom’s, not only purchasing paintings and drawings but also (in exchange for drawings) supplying the artist with a stipend, a gesture he felt was his privilege to make. Goldberg was also involved in other local art-related philanthropies and scholarships, particularly at Boston University. As was his practice, Bloom took time to find his way into his subject, creating several studies for the Goldberg portrait and working and reworking his canvas. David Goldberg, the sitter’s son, relates that the painting “perfectly captures my father, who joked around a good deal but was also a very serious man. Hyman worked on this for years before finishing the final version.”

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