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Lot Essay
A homage to Mansour’s 1978 painting of the same name, The Daughter of Jerusalem is cast as a bronze relief sculpture depicting a Palestinian woman in traditional dress, standing with the city of Jerusalem balanced atop her head. Her calm, dignified expression conveys resilience and pride, while her dark, melancholic eyes suggest a longing for city that exists only in memory. The figure’s dress is embroidered with traditional Palestinian designs outlined in shades of olive, sea green and burgundy. Above her, Jerusalem appears suspended in darkness, illuminated only by the lights of its buildings, giving the city a dreamlike, almost idyllic quality.
The fallaha (peasant woman) is a recurring figure in Mansour’s oeuvre and was particularly prominent in his work of the 1970s. Often depicted in rural settings, picking fruit or working the land, she embodies both the Palestinian homeland and the reciprocal relationship between people and the land. In The Daughter of Jerusalem, however, the fallaha carries the city itself, transforming her into a figure of heritage, memory and belonging. The gesture recalls the bread carriers who can be seen walking through Jerusalem’s Old City, grounding the image in an everyday Palestinian experience while also evoking the broader burdens carried by Palestinians. Jerusalem becomes at once something cherished, protected and carried, and a repository of historical loss. This motif is present throughout Mansour’s work, most notably in the iconic painting Camel of Hardships (1973), in which a Palestinian elderly man carries a vision of Jerusalem upon his back. The Daughter of Jerusalem thus belongs to a broader visual language through which Mansour gives physical form to the enduring connection between Palestinian identity and the city.
Mansour’s own experience of moving between his studies in West Jerusalem and his family home in East Jerusalem further informs the work’s themes of belonging and estrangement. Despite living in the city, he experienced the constraints placed upon Palestinian identity and cultural expression as a form of exile. In this context, the darker palette of the sculpture acquires additional poignancy. Revisiting an established image from Mansour’s earlier practice, the work adopts a more sombre visual language, with the deepened tones of the Jerusalem backdrop and the embroidery on the woman’s dress intensifying the sense of loss, displacement and historical weight. Yet the illuminated city introduces a counterpoint of light and darkness: despite being enveloped in shadow, Jerusalem remains vivid and luminous, suggesting that what is burdened by history can also be preserved in memory and sustained in hope.
The three works by Sliman Mansour featured in this auction offer a compelling testament to the diversity and brilliance of the Palestinian master’s practice, while serving as a tribute to his enduring legacy following his passing in August 2026.
Sliman Mansour (1947–2026) was a leading figure in Palestinian art. Born in Birzeit, he enrolled at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in West Jerusalem, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970 as one of the few Palestinian students there. Influenced by the religious imagery of his childhood and the realities of life under occupation, he developed a distinctly Palestinian visual language rooted in memory, heritage and identity. From the 1970s onwards, he also played an important role in the development of Palestinian artistic institutions, co-founding the League of Palestinian Artists in 1973 and later helping to establish the Al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem (1995–96) and the International Academy of Art Palestine in Ramallah (2006). His work is held in major collections including Institut du monde arabe, Paris; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. Mansour lived and worked in Jerusalem until his death on 24 August 2026, leaving behind a body of work deeply intertwined with the visual memory of Palestine.
The fallaha (peasant woman) is a recurring figure in Mansour’s oeuvre and was particularly prominent in his work of the 1970s. Often depicted in rural settings, picking fruit or working the land, she embodies both the Palestinian homeland and the reciprocal relationship between people and the land. In The Daughter of Jerusalem, however, the fallaha carries the city itself, transforming her into a figure of heritage, memory and belonging. The gesture recalls the bread carriers who can be seen walking through Jerusalem’s Old City, grounding the image in an everyday Palestinian experience while also evoking the broader burdens carried by Palestinians. Jerusalem becomes at once something cherished, protected and carried, and a repository of historical loss. This motif is present throughout Mansour’s work, most notably in the iconic painting Camel of Hardships (1973), in which a Palestinian elderly man carries a vision of Jerusalem upon his back. The Daughter of Jerusalem thus belongs to a broader visual language through which Mansour gives physical form to the enduring connection between Palestinian identity and the city.
Mansour’s own experience of moving between his studies in West Jerusalem and his family home in East Jerusalem further informs the work’s themes of belonging and estrangement. Despite living in the city, he experienced the constraints placed upon Palestinian identity and cultural expression as a form of exile. In this context, the darker palette of the sculpture acquires additional poignancy. Revisiting an established image from Mansour’s earlier practice, the work adopts a more sombre visual language, with the deepened tones of the Jerusalem backdrop and the embroidery on the woman’s dress intensifying the sense of loss, displacement and historical weight. Yet the illuminated city introduces a counterpoint of light and darkness: despite being enveloped in shadow, Jerusalem remains vivid and luminous, suggesting that what is burdened by history can also be preserved in memory and sustained in hope.
The three works by Sliman Mansour featured in this auction offer a compelling testament to the diversity and brilliance of the Palestinian master’s practice, while serving as a tribute to his enduring legacy following his passing in August 2026.
Sliman Mansour (1947–2026) was a leading figure in Palestinian art. Born in Birzeit, he enrolled at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in West Jerusalem, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970 as one of the few Palestinian students there. Influenced by the religious imagery of his childhood and the realities of life under occupation, he developed a distinctly Palestinian visual language rooted in memory, heritage and identity. From the 1970s onwards, he also played an important role in the development of Palestinian artistic institutions, co-founding the League of Palestinian Artists in 1973 and later helping to establish the Al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem (1995–96) and the International Academy of Art Palestine in Ramallah (2006). His work is held in major collections including Institut du monde arabe, Paris; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. Mansour lived and worked in Jerusalem until his death on 24 August 2026, leaving behind a body of work deeply intertwined with the visual memory of Palestine.