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Lot Essay
Born in 1910 in Ehden, the mountainous region of the Cedars of Lebanon, Saliba Douaihy grew up familiar with the traditional Lebanese landscape. Exposed to art from an early age when he discovered the religious paintings inside the churches in his hometown, he was encouraged by his family and friends to develop his talent and pursue his love for art. He was sent by his father to Beirut to study art where he soon started working in the atelier of the Lebanese artist Habib Srour. Srour, celebrated for his classical style, was in much demand as a portrait painter of important religious, social and political Lebanese and Arab personalities of his day. The young Saliba was often involved in commission projects as his assistant, an experience that left an indelible mark on the artist. In time, Douaihy went on to create his own distinctive style, much inspired by his homeland's landscapes.
In the fall of 1932, Douaihy was granted a scholarship from the Lebanese government to pursue his studies in Paris at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In the French capital, Douaihy studied oil painting, drawing and portraiture, as an apprentice of Paul Albert Laurens and Louis Roger as well as fresco painting under Duco de la Haille. There, he met the Iraqi artist Faeq Hassan whose painting drew his admiration. Two years later, the young Douaihy was awarded the school's top prize and successively exhibited at the Salon des Artistes.
After his graduation, Douaihy returned to Lebanon in 1937 as an established and prolific painter opening his own studio. Back in the Qadisha Valley of his homeland, Douaihy focused on his own interpretation of the Lebanese landscapes painting villages, monasteries and the Lebanese folklore in a classical style with elements of Impressionism, remaining close to his observations as he moved around the scenic villages.
In 1950, Douaihy moved to the United States of America where he lived in New York City until 1975. At this point the influence of Expressionism began to reflect in his works later presenting a gradual shift to abstraction which is prevalent in the present lot. This seminal work, representing a typical Lebanese village with the red brick roofs, lush greenery and the deep blue sea and sky of the Mediterranean coast, exhibits touches of Fauvist inspiration in the colour palette with the vivid colours of the mountains and the purple and brown of the Lebanese fertile soil. A progressive transition on a human and cultural level for the artist following his move to America led to an interesting transition from figuration, with a continued narrative about Lebanese mountains and valleys, to abstraction and to reliance on colour and shape versus colour and line. The hues of green, blue, orange, and brown merge increasingly together toward the background delicately creating intermediate colours. As a result, the perspective of the mountain relative to the horizon becomes less clearly defined. A resplendent light is created from these colour fuses. In the foreground however, one can discern the typical Lebanese architecture. A pivotal transition phase before entering his entirely abstract series of works, this painting illustrates spectacular chromatic harmony, a style that would later nourish his international success.
Douaihy believed that abstraction was the bridge between the Lebanese culture and the West, a way to erase boundaries and establish a form of dialogue between the two. Brilliantly achieving this ideal in the present work, his later minimalist and abstract series reflecting the culminating point of this ideology. The artist’s knowledge of classical European art, his exposure to American emerging art schools such as Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field painting in New York and his Lebanese heritage unite in this work in an extraordinarily pleasing way to the viewer’s eye.
In the fall of 1932, Douaihy was granted a scholarship from the Lebanese government to pursue his studies in Paris at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In the French capital, Douaihy studied oil painting, drawing and portraiture, as an apprentice of Paul Albert Laurens and Louis Roger as well as fresco painting under Duco de la Haille. There, he met the Iraqi artist Faeq Hassan whose painting drew his admiration. Two years later, the young Douaihy was awarded the school's top prize and successively exhibited at the Salon des Artistes.
After his graduation, Douaihy returned to Lebanon in 1937 as an established and prolific painter opening his own studio. Back in the Qadisha Valley of his homeland, Douaihy focused on his own interpretation of the Lebanese landscapes painting villages, monasteries and the Lebanese folklore in a classical style with elements of Impressionism, remaining close to his observations as he moved around the scenic villages.
In 1950, Douaihy moved to the United States of America where he lived in New York City until 1975. At this point the influence of Expressionism began to reflect in his works later presenting a gradual shift to abstraction which is prevalent in the present lot. This seminal work, representing a typical Lebanese village with the red brick roofs, lush greenery and the deep blue sea and sky of the Mediterranean coast, exhibits touches of Fauvist inspiration in the colour palette with the vivid colours of the mountains and the purple and brown of the Lebanese fertile soil. A progressive transition on a human and cultural level for the artist following his move to America led to an interesting transition from figuration, with a continued narrative about Lebanese mountains and valleys, to abstraction and to reliance on colour and shape versus colour and line. The hues of green, blue, orange, and brown merge increasingly together toward the background delicately creating intermediate colours. As a result, the perspective of the mountain relative to the horizon becomes less clearly defined. A resplendent light is created from these colour fuses. In the foreground however, one can discern the typical Lebanese architecture. A pivotal transition phase before entering his entirely abstract series of works, this painting illustrates spectacular chromatic harmony, a style that would later nourish his international success.
Douaihy believed that abstraction was the bridge between the Lebanese culture and the West, a way to erase boundaries and establish a form of dialogue between the two. Brilliantly achieving this ideal in the present work, his later minimalist and abstract series reflecting the culminating point of this ideology. The artist’s knowledge of classical European art, his exposure to American emerging art schools such as Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field painting in New York and his Lebanese heritage unite in this work in an extraordinarily pleasing way to the viewer’s eye.