John Longstaff Maurice Moscovitch

This portrait of Russian-born actor Maurice Moscovitch (1871–1940) is now in the National Gallery of Victoria collection.

Moscovitch emigrated to America around 1897, where he performed for many years in the New York Yiddish theatre and on Broadway. He toured Australia in 1924 and 1925 – when he sat for this portrait by John Longstaff – and performed in Shakespeare’s The merchant of Venice and Leo Ditrichstein’s The great lover in theatres across the country. Moscovitch later appeared in several films, including Susannah of the Mounties (1939) alongside Shirley Temple, and Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 masterpiece The great dictator.

Longstaff was a well-known and in-demand portrait artist by 1925. He had studied in Paris and exhibited work at the Salon and London’s Royal Academy in the early 1890s. Described as ‘tall, handsome and charming’, Longstaff moved easily within the upper echelons of Melbourne society, where his talent as a portraitist secured many commissions. His skills were also recognised and celebrated in the Archibald Prize, which he won five times in all; the 1925 win was his first.

Although this portrait reflects Longstaff’s more academically inclined portrait style, one critic noted: ‘the winning painting is a particularly virile and expressive presentation of Mr Moscovitch and is being “greatly admired” by visitors to the Art Gallery’.