Hassan EL GLAOUI (1925-2023) - Lot 46

Hassan EL GLAOUI (1925-2023) Fantasia Mixed media on isorel. Signed lower right. 75 x 107 cm (A few scratches) Born in 1923, son of the Pasha of Marrakech, Hassan El Glaoui was not guided by his social status, breaking with family tradition by not taking part in the country's affairs. He felt called by a vocation for drawing and painting, coupled with a passion for horses, which he rode from an early age. The horse runs through all his work. In Marrakech, the American Major General A. Goodyear, founder and president of the Museum of Modern Art in New- York Museum of Modern Art, encouraged him to perfect his craft in Paris. In 1964, an exhibition in Casablanca was a great personal success. The artist appears here in his usual thematic style, a dreamlike illustration of the Arab horseman and traditional festivals. Hassan El Glaoui is the descendant of one of the greatest Berber dynasties. He is the son of the last Pasha of Marrakech and the daughter of the Grand Vizier El Mokri. He was destined to follow in his family's political footsteps. But this vocation was abandoned when Winston Churchill saw one of his paintings in the Pasha's office in 1943. Churchill's assertion that there was no incompatibility between being a statesman and an artist paved the way for the young painter. 1952: Hassan moves to Paris, where he studies at the École des Beaux-Arts under Jean Souverbie and Émilie Charmy. First Paris exhibition. 1950-1960: Success begins: El glaoui is exhibited in several galleries, including Wildenstein and Hammer Galleries in New York, Galerie Andre Weill and Pétridès in Paris. After his father's death in 1956, shortly after Moroccan independence, his family's wealth was confiscated. During a stay in Marrakech, he and three of his brothers were kidnapped for political reasons, and held for over 18 months. On his release in 1959, he decided to settle in Paris. 1964: Back in Morocco, he exhibited his work for the first time in Casablanca and Rabat. His paintings pay tribute to Moroccan and Berber traditions, and he plays an important role for the younger generation of Moroccan artists. Hassan El Glaoui became famous in the 1980s for his modernism, landscapes and, above all, his unique portraits. His works are held in the Royal Palace collection in Fez, and the Parliament collection in Rabat. The artist died in 2018.