Lot 5: * OMAR ONSI (Lebanese, 1901-1969) View of Hauran

Omar Onsi (Lebanese, 1901-1969)
View of Hauran
oil on canvas, framed
executed in 1935
65 x 50cm (25 9/16 x 19 11/16in).
FOOTNOTES
Omar Onsi was a pioneer of modern painting in Lebanon and is considered Lebanon's most renowned landscape painter along with Mustapha Farroukh

Onsi was born in Beirut. After an attempt to study medicine, Onsi studied painting in Beirut with Khalil Saleeby.

From 1922 to 1927, he traveled to Transjordan, where he taught painting and English to the children of King Abdullah. The discovery of the desert and its colours during this stay had a major influence on his work.

In 1928, Onsi went to Paris to continue his training and stayed for 3 years, attending the Académie Julian and different workshops. During that period, Onsi focused on painting portraits, nudes, and Parisian scenery.

In 1933, he returned to Lebanon, bringing back a colorful impressionist palette and a French second wife. From then on, his work focused on the Lebanese landscape.

Hauran

Hauran gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning "cave land." In geographic and geomorphic terms, it extends from near Damascus and Mount Hermon in the north to the Ajloun mountains of Jordan in the south.

It includes the Golan Heights in the west and is bounded there by the Jordan Rift Valley; it also includes Jabal al-Druze in the east and is bounded there by more arid steppe and desert terrains. The Yarmouk River drains much of the Hauran to the west and is the largest tributary of the Jordan River.

The volcanic soils of Hauran make it one of the most fertile regions in Syria; it has traditionally been a home to Syria's Druze minority