Born in Austrian Galicia, E.M. Lilien studied art in Poland and Germany. Master etcher and illustrator, he first attended the Zionist Congress in 1901, helped Martin Buber organize an exhibition of Jewish artists, and thereafter made several trips to Palestine. During these visits, he compiled an impressive photographic collection which he combined with his visual memory to create Biblical scenes of Palestine - the land and people. His works were made known through widely distributed media: prints, illustrations, posters and postcards, and an illustrated Bible. Lilien's works show an affiliation between graphic art and photography. Once hidden away, his rediscovered photographs are a reservoir of lost memories, views and images of the Holy Land at the turn of the century. His mostly Biblical images show a sensitivity and sharp eye for details; his figures and portraits have extraordinary vitality; and, his snapshots at close range are particularly candid. Like his contemporaries, Lilien used these photographs as reference for his illustrations to produce an authentic Biblical motif. Ephraim Moshe Lilien was one of the two artists to accompany Boris Schatz to Eretz Israel in 1906 for the purpose of establishing Bezalel, and taught the school's first class. Although his stay in the country was short -lived, he left his indelible stamp on the creation of an Eretz Israel style, placing biblical subjects in the Zionist context and oriental setting, conceived in an idealized Western design. In the first two decades of the century, Lilien’s work was the model for the Bezalel group.
