NEW YORK, NY.- Marlborough Gallery announces an exhibition of works by Israel Hershberg.. Israel Hershberg: Paintings, Drawings & Photographs presents eleven oil paintings, a suite of twelve pencil drawings, and a suite of twelve photographs, all created by the artist within the last six years. The exhibition will continue through December 30, 2016.

For six years, Hershberg has made the ancient town of Civita Castellana, located some thirty miles to the north of Rome in the Lazio Region of Italy, his summer residence. The sweeping views of the dreamy surrounding landscape and villages that have caused Civita Castellana to become an epicenter of plein air painting for more than 300 years have now served as Hershberg’s source of inspiration for the works in this new show.

From Soratte (2013-2016) is the largest work in the exhibition stretching to 98 inches in width. The painting is a masterfully executed, breathtaking panorama of the bocage and distant rolling hills seen from the historic Mount Soratte. The famous peak of Mount Soratte is mentioned in writings by the ancient Roman poets Horace and Virgil (who stated that Apollo was its guardian deity in the Aneid), and centuries later by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his travel diary Italian Journey: 1786–1788, and by Henry James in Italian Hours – Roman Rides, published in 1909.

Ten additional paintings in the show are intimate in scale but similarly present contemplative, expansive vistas rendered by Hershberg in his characteristic subtle, dusty palette. Distant Hillside, From Villa Pieve (2010) offers the viewer a telescopic view of far off pastural terrain. On the Way to Orvieto (2009-10), In Montefeltro, View of Peglio (2011), and the newly completed View from Civita Castallana (2016) record the peaceful beauty of the hills, valleys and neighboring towns of this part of Italy that was an important stop for 17th, 18th and 19th Century artists.

Corot, Ingres, Turner and Poussin (to name a few) all spent time in Civita Castellana as they traveled north through the Roman Campagna. Responding to the directness of renderings in pencil or pen created by these masters during their sojourns in Civita Castellana, Hershberg has recently felt compelled to return to the immediacy of drawing. The twelve pencil drawings in this show are spare renderings of the Civita Castellana environ. Very small in scale, the suite is revealing of Hershberg’s sensitive, unwavering hand and discerning eye for composition.

For the first time, Israel Hershberg is presenting a suite of twelve “magic mirror” photographs, each image measuring 4 ¼ x 6 ½ inches. Hershberg employs a 17th Century silver mirror to capture reflections of Civita Castellana. The mirror’s antique, mottled surface and its scale are utilized by Hershberg as a device for framing compositions of abstracted views that might be read as memories of this storied town and its well-travelled paths.

Israel Hershberg was born on November 7, 1948 in a Displaced Persons camp in Linz, Austria. In 1949, he immigrated to Israel and lived there until he was nine. In 1958, he moved to the United States where he attended the Brooklyn Museum School, Brooklyn, New York from 1966 to 1968.

In 1972, Hershberg received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. In 1973, he earned his Master of Fine Arts at State University of New York, Albany, NY. From 1973 to 1984 he was instructor of painting and drawing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MA. In 1984, Hershberg taught painting at the New York Academy of Art, New York, NY.

Israel Hershberg moved back to Israel with his wife, painter Yael Scalia, and family in 1984. In 1991, he was awarded the Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art and in 1998 the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Prize for Israeli Art. Hershberg is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Jerusalem Studio School. He is based in Jerusalem, Israel.

An illustrated digital catalogue of the exhibition is available on-line for viewing at the time of the exhibition.