"Ezra Mendelsohn situates Gottlieb's impressive body of work in the context of contemporary European painting and uses it to illuminate the sociopolitical and cultural complexity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I. Interpreting the paintings and their reception, in Gottlieb's day and beyond, Mendelsohn addresses several key issues in modern Jewish history, among them identity, assimilation, acculturation, nationalism, the relationship between Jewry and European culture, and relations between Jews and non-Jews, particularly Poles."--BOOK JACKET.