il Painting by the Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Leon Patilon, "The Holy Painter" – Safed Alleyway

il Painting by the Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Leon Patilon, "The Holy Painter" – Safed Alleyway
Oil painting by the kabbalist R. Yehuda Leon Patilon.
Oil on canvas. Signed: "Leon".
The painting depicts a Safed alleyway, with a mountainous landscape in the background.
R. Yehuda Leon Patilon (ca. 1905-Cheshvan 1974), painter and kabbalist, was renowned as a wonder-worker with foreknowledge of the future, well-versed in the domain of souls and reincarnations. Born in Salonika, Greece, he was orphaned of his father at a young age, and was raised by his grandfather, a kabbalist, who bequeathed to him his kabbalistic approach in worship of G-d, which included rising at midnight and study of Kabbalah. Following his conscription in the Greek army, he fled to Turkey and France (where he presumably studied art). In ca. 1946, he immigrated alone to Eretz Israel, where he drew close to a group of hidden Tzaddikim in the Shabazi neighborhood of Tel Aviv. These men, who earned a living from manual labor while secretly gathering to study Kabbalah together, included: R. Moshe Yaakov Rabikov ("the shoemaker"), the hidden Tzaddik R. Hillel Simchon, R. Avraham Fish ("the floorer"), R. Ezra Eliyahu HaKohen (father of "the milkman", R. Chaim Kohen), and R. Yosef Waltuch "the street-cleaner", who earned a living cleaning the streets of Tel Aviv. His teacher R. Hillel Simchon arranged his match with his wife – Rebbetzin Victoria from the Jerusalemite Nisan family, and they lived in great modesty in the Shabazi neighborhood of Tel Aviv, barely sustained by the sale of his paintings. R. Patilon would set the price of his paintings based only on the cost of the paper, the paint and the work time, although as a talented artist, he could have asked for a much higher price (see: Mishpacha, issue 1404, 12th Nisan 2019, pp. 352-363). R. Yehuda Patilon would paint whilst engrossed in spiritual reflections, completely dissociated from the material world, yet his paintings remain realistic. The figures often featured in his landscapes bear a somewhat mysterious character (thus for instance, when his paintings depict a man carrying baskets, this usually hints to his close friend, the hidden Tzaddik R. Yosef Waltuch, who would often walk around carrying baskets, and travel with him to holy sites in the Galilee). Wondrous stories are retold of his knowledge of hidden matters and the future, revelations of Eliyahu HaNavi, of people who came to him in quest of salvation; and of blessings and promises which were astoundingly fulfilled (see Mishpacha, ibid).
50X40.5 cm, framed: 56X46 cm. Good condition.