Sophie Halaby

Sophie Halaby (1906–1997) was a Palestinian watercolourist who depicted Jerusalem and its surrounding landscapes. She was among the first Arab women to study art in Paris, and returned to her homeland to teach, paint, and criticize British and Zionist colonialism. Throughout her life, she supported and influenced later generations of Palestinian artists including Samia Halaby (no relation) and Kamal Boullata.

Life

Halaby was born to a Palestinian Christian father, Jiryes (George) Nicola Halaby, and a Russian Orthodox mother, Olga Akimovna Khudobasheva. Her parents met when her father was studying in Russia at the Kyiv Theological Academy, and moved back between Jerusalem and Kyiv until settling permanently in Jerusalem in 1917. They lived in Musrara, a well-off neighbourhood in Jerusalem's New City. Halaby had two siblings, and in later life would live and work closely with her sister Anastasia (Asia), who ran an embroidery workshop.

Beginning in 1917, Halaby was educated at the English Girl's High School of Jerusalem (renamed Jerusalem Girls' College in 1922.) After graduating, she worked for the British Mandate government and participated in Jerusalem's thriving arts and literary scene with friends including George Aleef. In 1929 she received a scholarship to study art in Paris from the French government. She returned to Palestine just before the 1936 Great Arab Revolt. During this period she taught at a girl's college and published political cartoons critiquing British policies including the Balfour Declaration, and the premise that Palestine was a land without an existing population.

During the Nakba, the Halaby family house was destroyed along with many others in the neighbourhood. Eventually, she and her sister Asia found a permanent home on Nur Eddein Street in Wadi al-Joz, where they lived together until their deaths. Throughout their lives, the sisters exhibited and sold their arts and crafts, as well as inspiring younger artists.

Work and influence

The loose, even casual nature of Halaby's landscapes evoke an "atmospheric, dreamlike quality one might even consider melancholic." Halaby's watercolours depict the landscape surrounding Jerusalem without the usual focus on religious sites or orientalist panoramas of the city. Instead, she focussed on the topography, trees, and wildflowers that have since disappeared with increased urbanization. According to Samia Halaby, "Sophie's landscapes are a precious record of the beauty of the land and the love affair Palestinians have with it." Tania Tamari Nasser, a writer and singer, has described how “Halaby's glowing color and her treatment of the wild flowers of Palestine inspired" her and her friends in their youth. One of these friends, Kamal Boullata, remembers checking the sisters' storefront exhibit for new paintings every day on his way to school.

Further reading

• Schor, Laura S., and Kamal Boullata. Sophie Halaby in Jerusalem: An Artist’s Life. Syracuse University Press, 2019.
• Selections from the Dalloul Art Foundation's Sophie Halaby collection