Sophie Halaby (1906–1997) was a Palestinian watercolourist who depicted Jerusalem and its surrounding landscapes. She was among the first Arab women to study art in Paris, and returned to her homeland to teach, paint, and criticize British and Zionist colonialism. Throughout her life, she supported and influenced later generations of Palestinian artists including

Samia Halaby Samia A. Halaby (born 1936, in Jerusalem) is a Palestinian artist, activist, and scholar living and working in New York. Halaby is recognized as a pioneer of abstract painting. Since beginning her artistic career in the late 1950s, she has exhibit ...

(no relation) and

Kamal Boullata Kamal Boullata (1942 − August 6, 2019) was a Palestinian artist and art historian. His works were primarily done in acrylic. His work was abstract in style, focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian identity, separation from homeland. He ...

Life

Halaby was born to a Palestinian Christian father, Jiryes (George) Nicola Halaby, and a Russian Orthodox mother, Olga Akimovna Khudobasheva. Her parents met when her father was studying in Russia at the Kyiv Theological Academy, and moved back between Jerusalem and Kyiv until settling permanently in Jerusalem in 1917. They lived in

Musrara Musrara ( ar, مصرارة, he, מוסררה, also known by its Hebrew name, Morasha, ) is a neighborhood in Jerusalem. It is bordered by Meah Shearim and Beit Yisrael on the north, the Old City on the south, Bab a-Zahara to the east, and the R ...

, a well-off neighbourhood in Jerusalem's New City. Halaby had two siblings, and in later life would live and work closely with her sister Anastasia (Asia), who ran an embroidery workshop. Beginning in 1917, Halaby was educated at the English Girl's High School of Jerusalem (renamed Jerusalem Girls' College in 1922.) After graduating, she worked for the British Mandate government and participated in Jerusalem's thriving arts and literary scene with friends including

George Aleef George Aleef (1887–1970) was a Russian orientalism, orientalist Painting, painter who served in the Tsarist Army. He later lived in Palestine (region), Palestine until the 1948 Palestinian exodus. His paintings depicted major historical moment ...

. In 1929 she received a scholarship to study art in Paris from the French government. She returned to Palestine just before the 1936 Great Arab Revolt. During this period she taught at a girl's college and published political cartoons critiquing British policies including the

Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...

, and the premise that Palestine was a land without an existing population. During the Nakba, the Halaby family house was destroyed along with many others in the neighbourhood. Eventually, she and her sister Asia found a permanent home on Nur Eddein Street in

Wadi al-Joz Wadi al-Joz ( ar, وادي الجوز; he, ואדי אל-ג'וז), also Wadi Joz, an abbreviation of "Valley of Josaphat" or Valley of the Walnuts, is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, located at the head of the Kidron Valley, north o ...

, where they lived together until their deaths. Throughout their lives, the sisters exhibited and sold their arts and crafts, as well as inspiring younger artists.

Work and influence

The loose, even casual nature of Halaby's landscapes evoke an "atmospheric, dreamlike quality one might even consider melancholic." Halaby's watercolours depict the landscape surrounding Jerusalem without the usual focus on religious sites or orientalist panoramas of the city. Instead, she focussed on the topography, trees, and wildflowers that have since disappeared with increased urbanization. According to Samia Halaby, "Sophie's landscapes are a precious record of the beauty of the land and the love affair Palestinians have with it." Tania Tamari Nasser, a writer and singer, has described how “Halaby's glowing color and her treatment of the wild flowers of Palestine inspired" her and her friends in their youth. One of these friends, Kamal Boullata, remembers checking the sisters' storefront exhibit for new paintings every day on his way to school.

Life

Work and influence

References

Further reading