Sale: Israeli & International Art - No. 194 Date of sale: 14.04.2024 Item: 69

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Reuven Rubin

Boy with Flowers Riding a Donkey,
Oil on canvas, 158×97 cm.
Signed.

The authenticity of the painting has been confirmed by Ms. Carmela Rubin, Rubin Museum, Tel-Aviv.

This painting, one of the largest of Reuven’s paintings, was likely painted around 1940, even before the painter began to surround his painted figures with black outlines. Now, the painter and his wife are in New York, far from the disaster of the World War, a peaceful and very fruitful period in Reuven’s work, he experienced success in his exhibitions throughout the USA, in which the orient of the Land of Israel is reflected as a place that is all good. These are the days when Reuven returned to one of the early paintings he painted in Israel – between 1925-1926 – "Arab rider with a bouquet of flowers." Then, the artist represented an Arab father and son on a donkey against the background of the sea and dunes and near a pink Arab house in the heart of an orchard.

The father in the front, his son in the back, both handsome and in festive attire (the father in black shorts and a white shirt, wearing flip flops; the son in a light blue flowered Galabia (traditional attire). The father is holding a huge bouquet of spring flowers, while his gray donkey tilts his head back and bites the leaves that the father hands him, confirming the circular unity of the native and the local animal. The painting, one of Reuven’s most well-known and beloved paintings, was understood as a greeting of peace and friendship from the native Arabs to the Jewish immigrants arriving in Israel, a painting typical of the idealization of the Arab in Israeli painting in the 1920s, an era that, as we know, came to an end in 1920 and after. And here, now, about 20 years later, Reuven returned to the exact same motif, as someone who craves the innocence and the oriental harmony at that time. With double the size of its predecessor painting (which height was 81cm) he returns to that picture, yet with some changes to its composition: Now, the son is riding in front, holding the giant bouquet of flowers, while his father is behind. The father and the son in light blue robes, both barefoot, with the father in a light blue Tarbush (traditional headwear) while playing the flute (it should be compared to the "Mholell" – a painting by Reuven from 1938 from the MOMA collection). Between the Arab and his donkey, which sends its head forward, there is no longer a circle of unity. But, most of all, Reuven removes from his new painting any sign of a local background: no more sea of Tel Aviv with sailboats, no more an Arab orchard in Jaffa: the background is completely neutral and focuses the gaze on the idyllic charm of the spring bouquet of flowers and the melody of the flute.

Without a local identity, the beloved and multi-sensory orientalist celebration intensifies, as it has been dominated since the 19th century by Western creators and viewers. Reuven’s choice of the large format indicates the importance he attributed to this painting and his confidence in the strong impression it would leave on the New York public.

Gideon Ofrat

Estimated price: $160,000 - $220,000

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About: Reuven Rubin

Born in Romania in 1893 Rubin is known as a leading prominent Israeli artist to this day. At age 19 he came to the then Palestine and began his studies at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem. Less than a year later he left for Paris and enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, but had to leave France when the First World War broke out. He whiled the years of the war in his native Romania and then traveled to New York in 1921 where he had an exhibition sponsored by Alfred Stieglitz. Following his return to Europe, in 1923 he returned to Palestine to become one of the founding fathers of Israeli art. Rubin’s early paintings from the 1920s’ seem to portray the “Zionist dream”, indeed, an idealized perception of the Jewish return to the historical homeland. He eagerly depicted the natural sights and the diversified human landscape of the land – traditional devout Jews, secular pioneers and Arabs – his bright vivid colors reflecting the Mediterranean sunlight and bypassing the tensions following the Arab riots at the end of that decade, the awareness to which came only later. Rubin’s style was naïve, inspired by European modernism (most particularly the French Henri Rousseau comes to mind but also Derain and Matisse) and reflecting a child-like enthusiasm vis-à-vis the new life forming around. The local flora and fauna, so often incorporated into his compositions of landscapes and portraits alike, are not merely decorative but rather they symbolize renewal, growth, harmony and above all that newcomer’s quest to instantly feel rooted in the new environment. Rubin’s depictions of Tel Aviv growing on the sand dunes, his panoramic landscapes of Jerusalem, his numerous depictions of the road to Safed, Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, became his trademark. His depictions of the Judean hills and the silvery-green Galilean olive groves became gradually more ethereal, immersed in a mystical atmosphere. In 1973 he was awarded the Israel Prize for his lifetime achievement in art. His paintings hang in the Knesset Building, in the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem, at the Prime Minister’s Residence and offices, in leading Israeli museums and in public and private collections in Israel and abroad. In 1983 The Rubin Museum opened to the public in Rubin’s former family home in Tel Aviv, showcasing his art in particular and Israeli art in general.