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Lot Essay
Carmela Rubin has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
An emigré from Romania, Reuven Rubin moved to Jerusalem in 1912 where he studied at the famous Bezalel Art School. Travelling to Paris in the 10's and New York in the 20's, Rubin absorbed all that the avant-garde could teach him and he subsequently rejected Bezalel's teachings. He turned to Cezanne and Henri Rousseau as inspiration for the images of his homeland for which he would become so revered. These landscapes are almost dreamscapes, depicting the land of David and evoking a biblical past that was so close to the hearts of those who had come from Europe to settle there, as he had. The present work shows a panorama of Jerusalem in the distance, the Har haBáyith or Temple Mount gleaming, with the olive groves of the Holy Land in the foreground.
Olive groves were a favorite motif for Rubin, and they appear throughout his oeuvre in works from the 10's right through to his later works of the 60's. As well as documenting the landscape of his new homeland these olive groves are laden with symbolism - the 'land of olive trees and honey' (Deuteronomy 8:8) promised to the Jews by God. Rubin remains one of Israel's most beloved painters, his works are a document of Israel at the birth of the 20th Century and show us how an idea of the land looked in the minds of those who inhabited it.
An emigré from Romania, Reuven Rubin moved to Jerusalem in 1912 where he studied at the famous Bezalel Art School. Travelling to Paris in the 10's and New York in the 20's, Rubin absorbed all that the avant-garde could teach him and he subsequently rejected Bezalel's teachings. He turned to Cezanne and Henri Rousseau as inspiration for the images of his homeland for which he would become so revered. These landscapes are almost dreamscapes, depicting the land of David and evoking a biblical past that was so close to the hearts of those who had come from Europe to settle there, as he had. The present work shows a panorama of Jerusalem in the distance, the Har haBáyith or Temple Mount gleaming, with the olive groves of the Holy Land in the foreground.
Olive groves were a favorite motif for Rubin, and they appear throughout his oeuvre in works from the 10's right through to his later works of the 60's. As well as documenting the landscape of his new homeland these olive groves are laden with symbolism - the 'land of olive trees and honey' (Deuteronomy 8:8) promised to the Jews by God. Rubin remains one of Israel's most beloved painters, his works are a document of Israel at the birth of the 20th Century and show us how an idea of the land looked in the minds of those who inhabited it.