 Marie
Hadad (1889 - 1973)
Biography
(English):
Born in Beirut, Marie Hadad was popular in Parisian artistic circles as early as 1933. The French government acquired her painting, "Lebanese Highlander" for the Jeu de Paume museum. Since then, her reputation and celebrity were established; she was highly praised by the well-known 20th century critic Louis Vauxcelles and she secured for herself a mention in Bénézit. She exhibited her works in the Paris Salons d'Automne until 1937, took part in the 1939 New York World Fair, in the Cleveland (Ohio) International Exhibition in 1941, and in the same year was represented at the Harvard University Museum exhibition. Her artistic consecration was, however, mainly shared between Paris and Beirut.
To Western eyes, Marie Hadad was the symbol of an oriental exoticism, transposing through paint the picturesque regions of Lebanon under their brilliant indigo skies: the arid mountains with their sheer precipices and steep slopes, their winding rocky paths and forests thick with giant pine and evergreens and the majestic cedars sung by Lamartine... A close observer of nature and an admirable colorist, she leads us through fields of juniper or pomegranate trees to the villages of Achkout or Makin, to the labyrinth of Beirut's old souks, all imbued with that freshness and crispness of the Mediterranean.
Still more touching are her portraits of Lebanese peasants: highlanders whose fierce stubborn eyes flash with dark lightning, rough-complexioned fellaheen wearing the fez, Bedouin women with their turbans above the full tattooed foreheads, vivacious young nymphs whose perfect oval faces are tanned brown as a berry. There are, too, her sprightly little velvet-eyed urchins, their bodies burned to bronze, who resemble "small wild animals" in the saucy malice and barefaced impudence of their look.
Says Louis Vauxcelles: "It is into this mysterious world, cradle of the most ancient of civilizations, that Marie Hadad allows us to penetrate"
About art, Marie Hadad noted: "Art colors our lives and enlightens us with beautiful illusions." by M. Joakim
The late Marie Chiha Hadad was born in 1889 in Beirut, Lebanon to a prominent family of bankers. She completed her education in 1908 at the exclusive French school 'l'Ecole Des Dames De Nazareth,' where she studied the work of the French masters in both literature and arts. Marie Chiha was married to Georges Hadad in 1916. The couple had three daughters, Magda (1918 - 1945), Andree (1919 - 1995) and Zeina (1922-).
In the early 1920's, Marie Hadad began painting for her own pleasure since it was not proper for Lebanese girls to undertake any manner of work. She had some art training in 1924 and 1925 with the French artist, Kober, who had an art school in Beirut. Subsequently, in 1930 she began exhibiting her art in Beirut and quickly became famous for her enduring and passionate portraits of bedouins and Lebanese highlanders. She truly earned her nickname of "the bedouin's artist"
In 1933, her friend Le Comte De Martel, French Ambassador to Lebanon, invited Marie Hadad to show her work in Paris. Hadad was the first and only Lebanese artist to be admitted at 'Le Salon d'Automne Du Grand Palais' in Paris from 1933 until 1937.
Her first solo exhibition was held at Georges Bernheim Gallery in 1933 where she continued to exhibit every year until 1940, the beginning of World War II. In fact, the French government acquired two of her portraits. The artist also exhibited in London and New York and took part in the New York World's Fair of 1939 and the Cleveland International Exhibition of 1941.
Hadad was also a proficient writer; in 1937 she published a collection of short stories entitled "Les Heures Libanaises" in which many of her paintings are reproduced.
Marie Chiha Hadad was a leader and pioneer in the Lebanese art circle and headed the "Association des Artistes du Liban." Her salon was famous as a meeting place for Beirut's intellectuals and artists. In 1945, while the world celebrated the end of the war, Marie Hadad endured the tragic death of her daughter Magda. This marked a turning point in her life. She abandoned her painting and went into seclusion until her death in 1973.
M. Joakim
The name of Marie Cheeha Hadad came to fame between the years of 1933-1940. In 1933, the London Daily Mail Newspaper of the Conservative Party, wrote: “The paintings of this artist were so beautiful and lifelike that if given the ability to speak, they would have. Many artists tried to study at length the light reflections or the still-life samples for people. The paintings reflect the Syrian skies drowning in twilight colors, its mountains, pine forests, orange trees, and its large cedar forests that Lamartine admired. Le Petit Parisien, a French Newspaper, wrote on the 21st of December of the same year: Madame Hadad forces her personality through her art and leaves one of her paintings to the village of Ashqoot as a token of her passion and love.”
In French - En Français
Dès 1933, Marie Hadad est accueillie avec enthousiasme dans le milieu artistique parisien ; L'Etat français lui achète, pour le Musée du Jeu de Paume, son "Montagnard Libanais". Depuis, sa célébrité et sa notoriété sont allées de pair jusqu'à figurer dans le Bénézit. Elle a exposé ses oeuvres au Salon d'Automne jusqu'en 1937, prit part à la New York World's Fair (1939), à l'International exhibition de Cleveland (Ohio) en 1941, et à la même année au Musée de l'Université à Harvard. Mais sa consécration artistique fut partagée entre Paris et Beyrouth.
Marie Hadad, fut pour l'Occident le symbole d'un exotisme oriental traduisant par la peinture les régions pittoresques du Liban, brillant sous un ciel indigo, les montagnes arides aux pentes abruptes et escarpées, aux sentiers tortueux et rocailleux, les forêts touffues de pins géants et de thuyas, les fameux cèdres majestueux tant chantés par Lamartine... Avec une observation aigue de la nature, en coloriste admirable, elle nous emmène à travers les champs de genévriers, de câpriers ou de grenadiers, vers le village de Achkout et de Makin, dans les dédales du vieux souk de Beyrouth nous pénétrant de cette fraîcheur méditerranéenne...
Plus touchants encore sont ses portraits d'indigènes libanais, montagnards aux yeux têtus et farouches, brillant d'un éclat sombre, Fellanines au teint mat coiffés du Tarbouch, bédouines enturbannées au front bombé tatoué, jeunes hauranaises enjouées au visage hâlé d'un ovale parfait. Quant à ses petits gamins au torse couleur bronze, aux yeux veloutés, pétillants de vie, ils ressemblent à des "petits animaux sauvages" par leur regard effronté, insolent, espiègle et malicieux.
"C'est en ce monde mystérieux, dit Louis Vauxcelles, berceau des plus antiques civilisations, que nous fait pénétrer Marie Hadad"
Lamia Chahine
Article by William MATAR
Marie Hadad was born at Mekkine in Lebanon in 1889 and
distinguished herself on the Lebanese cultural scene particularly
during the nineteen-thirties and ‘forties, passing away finally
on New Year’s day, 1973. After having published a collection of
stories, Les Heures libanaises, for she was of French education,
she exhibited in Paris at the George Bernheim Gallery in 1933 and
at the Rotgé Gallery in May and June of 1937. In 1939 she
exhibited at New York International Fair and at the International
Exposition of Cleveland. She had a direct method of painting while
looking for specific identity and forms, not however without attention
to detail. She went directly to the motif in her Lebanese paintings,
expressing what was around her. Perhaps they were influenced by
what the French public expected of Lebanese painting, but this was
counterbalanced by her sincerity. Both her writing and her painting
showed a reality truly experienced without intervening psychology.
Her strong, massive structure leaves no room for smoothness in her
representational technique applied to all her subjects. So folklore
and anecdote vanish from her canvases of landscapes and Bedouins.
Farroukh also avoided anecdote, approaching the same subjects in
a similar way but with reference to the background of Lebanese painting.
Those were the times of the French Mandate when one had to give
a picture of oneself to those present in the country who imposed
their own image.
Marie Haddad was one of a number of women taught by Kober during
the ‘thirties who applied astonishing force to an understanding
of reality, and intellectually she was as important as Farroukh,
Onsi and Gemayel. But during the ‘forties her promotion of the Dahesh
sect by translating into French the works of its founder, who had
been deprived of his Lebanese nationality, led this sister of Michel
Chiha to publicly oppose President Bechara el-Khoury. She evidently
found in Dahesh a contrast with her brother, a figure in the cultural
and political life of Lebanon, while her husband was a convinced
disciple of the sect.
Many of the writings, documents, and pictures of Marie Haddad were
deposited in New York after her death. While representing in Paris
during the nineteen-thirties her country under French mandate, she
was not tied down, thanks to he ability and her connection with
the social structure of the time. She wanted to go further, seeing
how void was Beirut society before the magic of Dahesh.
Was she looking for some truth behind the illusion? She had a truth
of her own to bring against this society of illusion, so she brought
Dahesh to Bechara el-Khoury to ease his nervous depression, and
he tried also to help Michel Chiha. Only the diary of Marie Haddad
and an in-depth biography might lead to an understanding of her
relationship with Lebanese society.
►► Some
of the artist's Artwork
►► Marie Hadad as Poet (Les Heures Libanaises)
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