Shmuel Levi
1884–1966 · Israeli painter of Bulgarian origin, Orientalist style
Shmuel Levi (Ophel), also written Shmuel Levy, was an Israeli painter born in Sofia in 1884 and died in 1966. His work, in an Orientalist vein, paid particular attention to Yemenite Jews. He adopted the pen name Opal, though he later dropped it. He is of interest as one of the early artists trained in the orbit of the Bezalel Academy.
He studied at the National Academy of Art in Sofia between 1901 and 1905. In 1906, with the founding of the Bezalel Academy, he settled in the Land of Israel at the invitation of Boris Schatz, and while there he organised the institution's first choir. After an exhibition in Czarist Russia that brought him acclaim and financial reward, he was able to study at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1913, where he took part in an Orientalist exhibition.
Back in the Land of Israel at the outbreak of the First World War, he was active in the local art scene. In 1920 he was among the founders of the Jewish Artist Association. He exhibited in Tel Aviv in 1927 and at the Galerie Sélection in France in 1931. He helped found the Beit Haam in Jerusalem and decorated its walls and ceilings with painting. A retrospective of his work was held in 1960 at the Tel Aviv Museum and the Jerusalem Artists House. His paintings are held in several museums, including the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.