Reuven Rubin

Acquired by Mr. Leon Gildesgame directly from the artist in London, 1930s
Then by descent to the present owner

Jerusalem, the Israel Museum (n.d.)
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Rubin Retrospective Exhibition, 1955
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Rubin Retrospective, 1966, no. 22
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Dreamland: Reuven Rubin and the Encounter with the Land of Israel in his Paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, November 2006 - March 2007

Sarah Wilkenson, Reuven Rubin, New York, n.d., p. 138, no. 105, illustrated

In good condition. The canvas is not lined. UV: Areas of inpainting along the side edges and in three small spots in the sky at upper left towards the top edge. A T-shaped, 2 inch by 2 inch area of inpainting in the upper rightmost houses. A few minute specks in the sea at left.
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In this early and important landscape from the 1920s, Rubin depicts Safed, painted from afar with two roads converging into the town. Lush trees and tidy rows of buildings accentuate the view, with the sea nestled in between the soft curves and slopes of the Galilean mountains in the background. Three goats appear in the foreground, grazing contently in this idyllic canvas.

Carmella Rubin explains that in Eretz Israel in the 1920's, European born immigrant artists painted the local landscape as a part of the process of their absorption. The elements of the Mediterranean, including the light and climate were an important part of feeling attached to the nascent land. (Reuven Rubin Dreamland: Reuven Rubin and the Encounter with the Land of Israel in his Paintings of the 1920s and 1930s ,Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, November 2006 - March 2007, exhibition catalogue, p. 230).  Rubin's contact with the brilliant light and scenery deeply affected the artist spiritually and influenced the manner in which he painted. In 1926, he explained "Here in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Tiberias I feel myself reborn. Only here do I feel that life and nature are mine. The grey clouds of Europe have disappeared. My sufferings and the war too are ended. All is sunshine, clear light and happy creative work. As the desert revives and blooms under the hands of the pioneers, so do I feel awakening in me all the latent energies...I have pitched my tent on these ancient hills and my desire to tie together the ends of the thread that history has broken." (Reuven Rubin, Rubin, My Art, New York, n.d., p. 162)