Lot 19: * Omar Onsi (Lebanon, 1901-1969) Nude by a Seascape

Omar Onsi (Lebanon, 1901-1969)
Nude by a Seascape oil on canvas, framedsigned "O. Onsi" (lower right)65 x 54cm (25 9/16 x 21 1/4in).

Provenance:Property from a private collection, Beirut"The artist should paint not only what he has in front of him but also what he sees inside himself." Caspar Friedrich Sensually rendered yet thoughtful, the present lot is a stirring and sensitive example of Omar Onsi's nude compositions. Depicting a voluptuous nude figure gazing pensively across the sea foam, the work recalls the "self-reflection" expressed through Friedrich's "Wanderer over the Sea of Fog". Onsi was born in Beirut. After an attempt to study medicine, Onsi studied painting in Beirut with Khalil Saleeby. From 1922 to 1927, he travelled 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 colourful impressionist palette and applying it to Lebanese landscapes and figural compositions Like both Renoir and Saleeby, Onsi exhibited a fascination with the depiction of the female nude, an important staple of academic training and thus one basis of art making throughout European art academies. For Impressionist artists like Renoir, the nude body provided an ideal subject through which to overturn artistic conventions and explore the dematerialization of form with light. Similarly, Onsi's own extraordinary body of nudes in exhibit a sustained experimentation with the effects of light infused colour and rhythmic brushstrokes.