KAHLIL GIBRAN | SLEEPING PRINCE

Private Collection, UK

Not to be mistaken with the more famous Kahlil Gibran, poet and author of The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran, presented here, although related as a cousin, must be appreciated as a formidable artist in his own right.

A Lebanese American painter and sculptor from Boston, Massachusetts, Gibran attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1940. He first received acclaim as a ‘magic realist painter’ in the late 1940s after a group exhibition of emerging artists, later known as the ‘Boston Expressionists’.

Gibran’s artistic career began with painting, but he leaned more heavily into sculpture in the mid-1950s and continued with this for the rest of his life. This perhaps a consequence of having spent hours in his father’s woodworking workshop, where he also learned about instrument making, in particular, stringed instruments.

Known for multiple skills, including painting; wood, wax, and stone carving; welding; and instrument making, his talent for craftsmanship and voracious creative appetite also led him to do substantial restoration work. During World War II, he served as a draftsman at Harvard's Underwater Sound Laboratory and briefly honed his skills at the Conservation Laboratory of Harvard University's Fogg Museum.

This charming painting by Gibran entitled ‘Sleeping Prince’ offers an almost wistful insight into the artist as painter. While Gibran can be appreciated simply based on his outstanding creative sensibilities and superb technical prowess, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the inherent and delicate poetic spirit which informs his work.