Habib
Srour's Earth Colors Pastel Painting - Portrait of an
Athlete, measures 55cm wide and 70cm high without frame.
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There is no doubt that the paintings of the talented master
of portraits, Habib Srour, have a timeless quality about
them. If proof of this were needed, it was there in 1974
for all to see in the annual catalogue of the 19th Baalbeck
Festival (the last festival before the 1975 war), when
the perfume giant Paco Rabanne decided to use Srour’s
painting ‘Portrait of an Athlete’ to depict its man of
the moment. Even though the portrait had been completed
some 60 years earlier, the perfume company clearly felt
that the subject projected just the right mix of classical
and contemporary features which made it a perfect marketing
tool; surely an acknowledgement of the huge talent that
Lebanese-born Srour possessed.
Portraits were what many critics believe Srour did best.
In his religious commissions, which were highly in demand,
the artist adopted a more conservative approach. But his
portraits, which included leading political figures and
dignitaries of the time, were where he experimented and
expressed himself more freely.
Habib Srour’s family left Lebanon for Rome when he was
ten years old. The move allowed him to study at the Institute
of Fine Arts before he moved on to Egypt. It was 1890
before he returned to Beirut where he immersed himself
in painting and studying at the Imperial Ottoman School
of Bashoura and in his own studio which was located in
the grounds of Alfred Sursock’s house in Beirut.
Srour was the artist in the new wave of the artistic renaissance
emerging in Lebanon at the end of the 19th century and
is credited with having brought the basic principles of
art technique to Lebanon, such as highlighting the importance
of light, shadowand form, say the critics, which up to
then had remained inert and fixed, now became expressive
and evocative.
Srour also managed to conjure up a great national feeling
in his work. Many of Srour’s paintings have subjects in
national dress, or depict well-known landscapes of the
time. His ‘Mountain Priest’ brings to life everything
about mountain society at the time. And who can forget
the haunting expression of the ‘Bedouin Girl’ as she stares
out at us from the canvas? And now ‘Portrait of an Athlete’
in faultless perfect Pastel Colors, has also found itself
to the fore yet again; as relevant today in the world
of art as it was 95 years ago.
