SALIBA DOUAIHY | UNTITLED (MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE)

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner's father in 1979 

Born in Ehden, the northern mountains of Lebanon, Saliba Douaihy was first inspired by the brick churches in his country’s hometown. At an early age Douaihy worked under the tutelage of the portrait painter Habib Srour, who helped refine his early technique, and encouraged his depictions of religious scenes within the vicinity.

Sotheby’s is honored to be showcasing examples of Douaihy’s early works which successfully capture the sense of calmness of the country’s landscape, through pastel coloured pictures of rustic villages and local architecture. This early work combined the foundations of figurative art with a palette unique to his community of northern Lebanon. 

Douaihy further developed his artistic education through a grant that allowed him to partake in a cross-cultural exchange between Lebanon and France, where he studied at the time at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. His exposure to the booming modern art scene in Paris provided fertile grounds for his development from a classical painter to the minimalist abstract painter that he was to eventually become.

Upon his return to Lebanon from Paris, he was commissioned to paint the frescos at the Maronite Church of Diman. Religious scenes were reflective of his early landscape and paysage scenes.

Douaihy’s practice is deeply rooted in his development from a classical painter to an abstract minimal painter. The present works provide collectors a glimpse into the artist’s growth. These paintings presented here in particular, showcase a sense of nostalgia and reverent love for his homeland and particularly the northern region of Lebanon.

Unlike most realist works by Douaihy that have appeared on the market; the present Church scene is unique in that it’s a rendition of a church in North America. Saliba Douaihy moved to the United States in 1950s and in the 1980s was living and working in the loft of the Maronite Church of our Lady of Lebanon in Brooklyn Heights. Douaihy left a lasting impression on the church through his stained glass windows and a mural of Our Lady of Harissa. The connection of this collection delves deeper, into Douaihy’s American story, as the collectors of the works were dear and close friends of the artist. The present collection was presented to them as a gift from the artist.  

A true pioneer of Arab modernism, these rare works are critical to the completion of his oeuvre as an artist. For it is in America, and upon his immigration to the United States, where we see Douaihy abandon realism for a minimal aesthetic on par with the likes of Josef Albers who was one of his greatest sources of inspiration.