As with any dynasty, the history of the Sassoon family is filled with adversity, courage, intelligence and a name that unites them. What separates the Sassoons from other wealthy families is their remarkable and extensive history of trade, travel, art collection, architectural patronage and civic engagement, which took them from Iraq to Israel. India, China and England. The Sassoons at the Jewish Museum covers both the family and the items they collected, but fails to get to the bottom of the Sassoons’ greed and jealousy. And despite the initial wall text promising to “highlight the important role of Sassoon women,” the show doesn’t delve far enough into the pioneering paths the many Sassoon women forged.
The exhibit features 120 examples of artwork, manuscripts and Judaica from around the world that family members have amassed. In the first of five galleries, we are greeted by a portrait of David Sassoon (1792-1864), the family patriarch and the beginning of the story. David wears a flowing dress and an intricate headdress; accented by his long silver beard, he is the image of an Iraqi Jew with means. He fled persecution in Baghdad, soon settling in Mumbai (then Bombay). There he was involved in the cotton trade, later extending to the Indian opium trade with China.
An intricately ornamental ivory coffin gives shape to the family’s opium-fueled wealth and sets the stage for a later room dedicated to artifacts from the Qing and Ming dynasties. The small Qing object, owned by Victor Sassoon, offers a painted view of the Bocca Tigris, which played an important role in the First Opium War. In an effort to dominate the opium trade, David sent his son, Elias David Sassoon, in search of new customers. Opium became extremely lucrative for the Sassoon; their entire fortune was built on the highly addictive (albeit legal) drug.
One must be careful when judging the family’s involvement in the opium trade, especially through a contemporary moral lens. But at the time, the drug was already known to be addictive and dangerous. In fact, the family quietly fired some of their Chinese employees because of their opium addiction.
The first room is also filled with items such as silver Torah cases, marriage certificates and family portraits. Although these may have been paid for with opium, only the ivory coffin points to the business, and the family’s involvement in drugs is only a footnote in the audioguide.
The adjoining galleries follow the Sassoon’s transition from Far Eastern trade to assimilation into British society. In a small alcove, Rachel Sassoon Beer (1858–1927) takes the stage, the first of many strong Sassoon women. An ethereal 1887 portrait of her by Henry Jones Thaddeus hangs in the center. Rachel was an avid art collector and socialite, as well as an accomplished journalist and the first woman to head two major news publications: The Sunday Times And The Observer in London. The wall text in the room mentions Rachel’s unprecedented female leadership, but the fictionalized portrait, and a subsequent room which contains her collection of works by Rubens, Courbet, Corot and Constable, portray her first as a wife and a collector and as a revolutionary feminist. second icon. Despite her major role in journalism, no copies of the newspapers or articles she worked on are on the show. If this exhibition wants to pay particular attention to the women of the family, why not include copies of his legendary report on the Dreyfus affair?
Silver Torah finials, scrolls and pointers fill the fourth gallery, alongside an extensive collection of manuscripts of ancient Jewish texts, from Kabbalistic treatises to the Hebrew Bible, liturgical fragments and the Haggadah family. This impressive collection of Judaic art and literature is juxtaposed with the art and architectural patronage of the Sassoons. Here, Sybil Sassoon (1894-1989) and her expert eye dominate. With a Sassoon father and a Rothschild mother, Sybil and her brother, Phillip, grew up in the company of leading artists, as well as prominent social and political figures. Among the many works on display are a picturesque sketch by William Orphen, paintings by their close friend Winston Churchill, and family portraits of John Singer Sargent, displayed together on one long wall.
It was strange to see so many portraits of Aline de Rothschild, Sybil and Phillip, but none of Flora (Farha) Sassoon (1856-1936). Flora was the first female partner of David Sassoon & Co. and, in 1894, one of the first female presidents of a global company. Flora was kicked out of the business after seven years due to her brothers’ inability to accept her success.
The final section of the exhibit focuses on the family’s role in World War I, in which Sir Victor Sassoon, Philip and Siegfried served. Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), a poet, became the voice of a generation with his provocative letter of protest against the war. The “Soldier’s Statement” was published in The temperature of London and read aloud in Parliament. There was no copy of the diary to share his revolutionary ideas in detail, but hidden in a small display case you will find a notebook with the draft statement written, crossed out and edited.
The Sassoon dynasty is filled with merchants, poets, soldiers, socialites, rivalries, art and drugs, and everyone in the family has stories to tell. But the Jewish Museum missed an opportunity to look more critically at the Sassoons’ reliance on selling opioids to fund their lavish lifestyle, and to delve into the lives and careers of the women – who made progress towards gender equality that is recognized only in passing. Perhaps by shedding new light on such a legendary family with this exhibit, we can expect new research that will fill those gaps.
The Sassoons continues at the Jewish Museum (1109 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan) through August 13. The exhibition was curated by Claudia Nahson, Morris and Eva Feld, senior curator at the Jewish Museum, and Esther da Costa Meyer, professor emeritus at Princeton University.
