Vladimir and Bethsheba Isserlis
Bethsheba front left with her husband, Vladimir Isserlis behind her on the left of the
picture, her sister leaning on her shoulder and her sister's husband at the back on the
right. The picture was taken in the Ukraine in the 1870s when Bethsheba was 17.
From 'Salt of our Youth'
by Rose Odle, Vladimir and Bethsheba's youngest child
My father, Vladimir Isserlis, was a direct descendent of the Rabbi. When my mother was widowed, she added to her resources by selling the Rabbi's shawl and phylacteries to a wealthy, and either very pious or very sinful, Jew who hoped his entry into heaven would be aided by this means.
My mother married at seventeen. I have a portrait of my parents taken soon after their marriage. My mother and her sister are sitting in front of their husbands, who stand behind them. My father leans over a balustrade; his brother-in-law stands, firmly poised, upright. My father's face is long and narrow. He looks a slight man; his fairish hair, eyebrows and moustache, his whole attitude, all droop a little.
The eyes and the mouth show sadness, with a touch of some other feeling, not exactly hope, but as if the future might yet hold something interesting or amusing.
The sisters, in the sentimental manner of the time, lean towards
each other with their heads touching. My mother's face is oval, the
eyes tender, her mouth a soft curve, all framed by smoothly parted
dark hair. Her sister has a broader face and a harder look. Both wear
charming dresses, flowing widely from slender waists to a froth of
flounces at the ankles. On her lap, my mother holds negligently a
large leghorn hat, the crown of which is circled by roses.
How young she looks! There is as yet no air of authority, the mouth has not taken the firm lines which hard decisions in life helped to form.