The Founding oF The STaTe oF iSrael, 1948

The Founding of the State of Israel, 1948
Sanford Low (1905 - 1964) and Walter Korder (1891 - 1962)
View of Haifa, Upon the Founding of Israel, 1948
signed “Sanford Low” and “Walter Korder,” and dated lower left
oil on canvas
mural, 69 ½” x 222”
In 1948, the Mediterranean port city of Haifa was at the center of a year-long struggle
between Jewish residents of the recently delineated Israeli state and the Arab population.
Haifa had long been an economic center, but newly-built oil refineries combined with the
city’s significant shipping industry made it a key prize in the early fight between Israel and
Palestine. Working a world away from this backdrop of ethno-religious tension and frequent
violence, muralists Sanford Low and Walter Korder created a different view of Haifa on the
eve of Israel’s birth. The multifaceted composition of View of Haifa, Upon the Founding
of Israel celebrates the history of the ancient city, the industriousness of the Jewish people,
and the beauty and bounty of the landscape. The mural is not a wish for the future, but a
statement that prosperity has already arrived.
Little is known about the mural work of Sanford Low and Walter Korder. Of the two artists,
Low possesses the greater reputation. A Hawaiian native, Low expressed an early interest
in art, studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and at the Grand Central
Art School. He spent much of his painting career working along the eastern seaboard and on
Martha’s Vineyard in particular. Jovial and charismatic, he developed strong relationships
among painters, dealers, and patrons, and in 1936 was named the director of the fledgling
New Britain Museum of American Art. Under Low’s direction, the museum grew rapidly,
expanding its collection and attracting visitors from beyond Connecticut. Low’s most
famous coup was the somewhat stealthy acquisition of Thomas Hart Benton’s (1889-1975)
mural series, The Arts of Life in America, in 1953. Benton and Low were close friends, and
Benton’s mural work almost certainly informed Low’s own approach.
Sanford Low’s partnership with Walter Korder began in 1937. Korder, a former student of
Charles Noel Flagg (1848-1916) and one-time president of the Connecticut Academy of Fine
Arts, worked primarily as an illustrator. His collaborations with Low frequently included the
specter of three-dimensionality and scenes of industry, the layout and composition of which
were his specialty. Together, they painted about five murals, the most famous depicting
William Goodwin, Thomas Hooker’s emissary to the Suckiage Indians, at the 1636 signing
ceremony that transferred thirty-six acres along the Connecticut River that would eventually
be settled as the colony of Hartford.
Each of the three sections of View of Haifa, Upon the Founding of Israel represents a
different aspect of the city’s character, with the city standing in for the new state as a whole.
The leftmost section shows three Jewish men engaged in the metaphorical act of nationbuilding alongside a Haifa refinery and in the shadow the new Israeli flag. In the background
stands what is likely the original structure that housed the remains of Abdul-Baha, spiritual
leader of the Baha’i faith, which was later replaced by the Shrine of the Bab, Haifa’s most
popular landmark.
The middle section is a near-panoramic and authentically rendered view of the port of Haifa.
The well-cultivated fields descending from Mount Carmel flow seamlessly into the bustling
urban center, which in turn runs down to the sea. The billowing clouds are perhaps the most
Benton-esque detail of the mural and the patchwork of greens expresses a pastoral serenity
at odds with the city’s political reality. The varied ships at harbor, including some possibly
anachronistic vessels, are evidence of the port’s vital role in the economy of the region.
Featured in the rightmost section is the building formerly known as the Technicum, the
precursor to the present-day Technion, Israel’s national Institute of Technology. The building
itself remains part of the school’s campus and houses the Israel National Museum of Science,
Technology, and Space. The conspicuously American symbols of prosperity – the pumpkins,
gourds, and wheat – are curious inclusions, but the gentle sensuousness of the women in the
orange grove, engaged in the gathering of ripe fruit, makes a case for the land as something
to be desired.
Panorama of Haifa (view from Mount Carmel), 2008
In all, View of Haifa, Upon the Founding of Israel is a remarkable visual record of the
optimism felt by Jewish Americans in 1948. As Benton did occasionally in his views of the
American West, here Low and Korder have created a stylized world in which the best hopes
of a struggling people might finally have a physical space in which to flourish. The political
and military conflicts that both preceded and followed the separation of Israel from Palestine
notwithstanding, View of Haifa,Upon the Founding of Israel is a testament to the value of
peace.
Bibliography:
1. “About Our Mural,” broadside published by the Phoenix State Bank and Trust Company, Sanford B. D.
Low Archive, the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute.
2. New Britain Herald, “30-Foot Mural Is on View In Savings & Loan Building,” May 27, 1957
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