Moustafa Farroukh

Abstract

Moustafa Farroukh (1901–1957) was a foundational figure in Lebanese painting during the first half of the 20th century, frequently depicting Lebanese themes through naturalist figuration. Following mentorship of Habib Serour (1863 –1938) in Beirut until 1924, he pursued his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and in Paris, where he mastered Academic traditions. In 1928, he established his practice in Beirut, where he participated in group shows and pioneered the solo exhibition format. Farroukh focused on idealised Lebanese landscapes and rural scenes, as well as portraits of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Less often, he depicted urban scenes, historical events, and the then-controversial nude. He was also an educator at the American University of Beirut and recognised as a prominent intellectual. Farroukh explicitly rejected Modernist trends and conceived of art as a moral tool for social progress. Farroukh was moreover an early contributor to the historiography of Lebanese art.

Biography

Early life and first artistic training

Born in 1901 in Beirut, Moustafa Farroukh was raised in a Sunni family in the lower-middle-class neighbourhood of Basta. He began drawing while attending primary schools run by Sunni scholars. In 1912, he received his first commissions when Taher el-Tannir, his former school director, hired him to produce ink portraits of local notables for his magazine. Through el-Tannir, Farroukh met Gertrude Lind, the daughter of Beirut-based German photographer Jules Lind, who taught him watercolour and drawing. Although he was encouraged to pursue painting, Farroukh expressed concern about the Islamic prohibition of figuration. He sought guidance from Sheikh Mustafa al-Ghalayini, a progressive Sunni religious scholar, who reassured him that producing figurative images was compatible with his religious beliefs.

Following secondary education, Farroukh briefly attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Beirut. By this time, his work as an illustrator had attracted the support of figures within the city's intellectual milieu. Salahuddin Al-Lababidi, an educator and writer, introduced Farroukh to Lebanese painter Habib Serour (1863–1938), a leading figure in Beirut's painting scene, who maintained a studio where he trained younger artists. A graduate of Rome's Accademia di San Luca, Serour mentored Farroukh until 1924, introducing him to oil painting and the fundamental principles of Academic art, and advising him to study French and Italian in preparation for further training in Europe.

Studies in Rome and the establishment of a professional practice in Beirut

After accumulating sufficient funds through his work as an illustrator, Farroukh travelled to Rome in September 1924 to pursue further studies. To qualify for the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, he attended preparatory classes at the Scuola preparatoria alle arti ornamentali (Preparatory school for the Decorative Arts), where he studied with the Neo-Classical painter Antonino Calcagnadoro (1876–1934). Subsequently, Farroukh enrolled at the Belle Arti, where he followed the school's academic curriculum, which emphasised naturalistic figuration, in alignment with Renaissance and Baroque traditions. Among his professors was Italian painter Umberto Coromaldi (1870–1948), known for his portraiture and landscape painting, two subjects in which Farroukh developed a sustained interest. During his time in Rome, he produced paintings of the Italian countryside and broadened his artistic education through visits to monuments and museums.

Farroukh completed his course of study in mid-1927 and spent three months in Paris, where he met Lebanese sculptor Youssef Hoyek (1883–1962) before returning to Beirut at the end of the year. He began his professional career in a context where local painters worked primarily on commission, and, in the absence of art gallery or museum infrastructure, had limited opportunities for public exposure. Farroukh was among the first painters in Beirut to begin producing works independently and to organise solo exhibitions to present them to potential patrons. In 1928, he held an exhibition, sponsored by the Muslim Scouts, in a private residence, followed by another in 1929 at the Green Room of the American University of Beirut. This latter exhibition, which focused on portraiture, received significant attention in the local press.

Formative years in Paris and return to Beirut

Farroukh’s growing professional standing in Lebanon led him to receive a government grant to pursue further studies in Paris, where he lived from 1929 to 1931. There, he trained under artists such as Impressionist painter Jean-Louis Forain (1852–1931) and the then-president of the Société des Artistes Français, Paul Chabas (1869–1937), who specialised in portraiture and nudes, two subjects of particular interest to Farroukh. During this period, Farroukh exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His works received attention in the French press in 1930 for a portrait of Habib Serour, and in 1931 for paintings depicting the church of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris and a Turkish coffeehouse scene.

In 1930 Farroukh spent several weeks in Spain, where he visited and painted sites associated with Andalusia’s Islamic architectural and artistic heritage, notably producing several watercolours of the Alhambra Palace In his account of his this trip, later published as Journey to the Land of Lost Glory, Farroukh frames the Arab-Islamic past as a lost civilisational parent and source of cultural inheritance, contrasting its perceived grandeur with the decadence of the present. Upon returning to Lebanon in 1932, he established his studio in downtown Beirut. He continued to organise independent solo exhibitions at venues such as the West Hall of the American University of Beirut and the School of Arts and Crafts while also participating actively in the city’s developing culture of group exhibitions during the 1930s and 1940s, exhibiting at major events such as the salons organised by the Friends of the Arts Society (1938–42). A survey of Lebanese art was presented at the UNESCO headquarters in 1948.

Naturalist figuration and representations of Lebanon

Alongside contemporaries such as César Gemayel (1898–1958) and Omar Onsi (1901–1969), Lebanese art writers regarded Farroukh as one of the prominent painters of his generation. They praised his vivid, luminous depictions of Lebanon's nature and people, painted in the tradition of naturalist figuration. Farroukh elaborated on his approach in his writings, where he expressed his commitment to the principles of Academic art derived from European Renaissance traditions, and emphasised the importance of colour and form harmony and anatomical accuracy. He incorporated elements associated with Impressionism, including an attention to changing light and the use of short, visible brushstrokes, and staunchly opposed Modernist trends such as Cubism and abstraction.

Farroukh's works propose an idealised vision of Lebanon. In his mountain landscapes, he minimised signs of human intervention such as roads, villages, or agricultural infrastructure. Instead, he emphasised natural elements, painting views that highlight the sun, sky, rocks, and trees. His portrayals of rural life similarly present pastoral idylls, often at odds with the rapid social, demographic, and economic transformations in Mount Lebanon during the first half of the 20th century. Likewise, Farroukh's rare paintings of Beirut eschew depictions of modern urban life, focusing instead on old souks and seaside promenades.

Farroukh was also a prolific portraitist who presented a broad panorama of Lebanese society. He produced portraits of numerous Lebanese intellectuals, religious, and political figures of his time, among them works executed as governmental commissions, as well as portraits of villagers, nomadic people, and residents of Beirut, with particular attention given to the rendering of character and individuality through pose and facial expression. He frequently exhibited nudes, thereby contributing to the gradual acceptance of this genre in Lebanon, where it remained controversial during the French Mandate period.

Intellectual activity and views on art and society

In addition to his work as a painter, Farroukh was active as a teacher and public intellectual. He taught art at the American University of Beirut and contributed to public debate through lectures delivered to cultural circles, articles, and books, in which he elaborated on his views on art and society. In these writings, he articulated a conception of art as having a moral and educational function: he viewed painting as a reflection of nature and human experience, and as a means to promote self-awareness and social understanding. Farroukh maintained that it was the artist's responsibility to cultivate public taste and thus contribute to the ethical refinement of society and to broader social and cultural progress.

Farroukh articulated critical perspectives on social conservatism, which are evident in various aspects of his artistic oeuvre. He created several paintings that address issues related to gender roles, including the potential for women to move beyond traditional domestic expectations and their right to autonomy in public spaces. More broadly, his social critique extended to caricatures and satirical works addressing political figures, contemporary events, and societal shortcomings.

Lebanese historiography and national representation

In both his artistic and intellectual activity, Farroukh engaged with questions of Lebanese art history and national representation, without explicit affiliation with a partisan or ideological political framework. His 1947 lecture "The Forerunners of Lebanese Art" represents an early contribution to the historiography of Lebanese art by retracing its development from the seventeenth century onwards, employing comparisons with the Italian Renaissance to assert Lebanon's position within the international cultural sphere.

Farroukh also contributed to broadcasting Lebanon's national image abroad. He notably designed many series of Lebanese postage stamps, and, in 1939, served on the organising committee of the Lebanese Republic pavilion at the New York World's Fair. The pavilion, curated by poet and entrepreneur Charles Corm (1894–1963), featured an exhibition tracing Lebanon's history from Antiquity to the twentieth century. For this occasion, Farroukh created a painting depicting the arrival of Omayyad Caliph Muawiyah in Lebanon during the seventh century.

In 1935, Farroukh married Souraya Tamim, with whom he would have two children. He passed away in 1957 in Beirut.

Bibliography

Esanu, Octavian and Scheid, Kirsten, eds. The Arab Nude: The Artist as Awakener. Exhibition catalogue. Beirut: American University of Beirut Art Galleries, 2016.

Fani, Michel. Dictionnaire de la peinture libanaise [Dictionary of Lebanese Painting]. Paris, Escalier, 1998.

Moustafa Farroukh 1901-1957. Exhibition catalogue. Beirut: Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum, 2002.

Sadeq, Walid.“Ill with Home: on the autobiography of Moustafa Farroukh.” Boot Print, June 2008, Vol 2/Issue 1.

Scheid, Kirsten. "Divinely Imprinting Prints, or, How Pictures Became Influential Persons in Mandate Lebanon" in The Routledge Handbook of the History of Middle East Mandates, edited by Cyrus Schayegh and Andrew Arsan. London: Routledge, 2015.

------. "Necessary Nudes: Hadatha and Mu'asira in the Lives of Modern Lebanese." International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 42, No. 2, 203-25.

Sultan, Maha. Ruwwad min Nahdat-al-Fann al-Tashkili fi Lubnan - Al-Qorm wa Srour wa al-Salibi (1870-1938) [Pioneers of the Plastic Arts in Lebanon: Corm, Serour, Saleeby (1870-1938)]. Beirut, Université Saint-Esprit Kaslik Press, 2005.

Tomb, Marie. The Portrait of a Country: Artists, the Art World and the Formation of Modern Lebanon, 1880-1943. Ph. D. diss, SOAS University of London, 2017.

Tomb, Marie, et. al., under the direction of Nour Abillama. Art from Lebanon. Modern and Contemporary Artists 1880-1975 vol. 1. Beirut: Wonderful Editions, 2012.

Further Reading

Farroukh Moustafa. A trip to the Land of Lost Glory. Beirut: Dar Al Kachf, reedited in

1982 by Dar Al Moufid.

------. “Hadith Al Fann” ["The Discourse of Art"]. Al-Adib, May 1, 1948.

------. “Min Zawaya Al Tarikh Al Fanni” ["From the Corners of Art History"]. Al-Adib, August 1, 1945.

------. Ṭarīqī ilá Al-Fann [My Way to Art]. Beirut: Dar Naufal, 1986.

------."Taliaat al-Fannanin al-Lubnaniyyin" ["The Forerunners of the Lebanese Artists"] in Les Conférences du Cénacle vol. 5. Beirut: Michel Asmar, 1947.

Hakim, Victor. “Le Souvenir de Moustapha Farroukh” ["The Memory of Moustafa

Farroukh"]. La Revue du Liban, March 19, 1957.

"Lebanon" in The Book of Nations, edited by William Bernbach and Herman Jaffe. New York

City: Winkler & Kelmans, 1939.

Tomb, Marie. War / Identities - Human Rights Seen through the Eyes of Lebanese Artists. 

Beirut: Human Rights Watch, 2016.