“Bibi Zogbé earned the title of ‘El Peintora des Flores’ – for she invites us to savor the delightful perfumes of the flowers of her native land, that gloriously beautiful land of her forefathers. Her flowers are the microcosm of Lebanon, ‘Paradise of Eden’ a garden endlessly in blossom, symbol of the birth to Life.”
Born in 1890 in the coastal Lebanese city of Sahel Alma, Bibi Zogbé is regarded as one of the country’s most significant early modern female artists. An intrepid and liberal character, Zogbé first pursued her love for art during her traditional French education at the Holy Family School in Jounieh, before immigrating to Argentina at the age of sixteen to marry husband Domingo Samaja. Seeking an independent life, they divorced soon after, but Argentina would remain the artist’s beloved second home. It was in Zogbé’s Buenos Aires studio that she would encounter artists, poets, and politicians, and come to be treasured by both the Lebanese and wider South American art scene. Spending her mid to late-thirties between Paris and Dakar, Zogbé absorbed the spirit of the international avant gardes, notably Art Deco and its favouring of vibrancy and bold geometric form. Recognised most saliently for her joyous renditions of nature as inspired by her native Lebanon, she came to be known as ‘La Pintora De Flores’ (The Flower Painter). The present work, executed in 1950, was painted on occasion of the centennial anniversary of the death of José de San Martín, known as the liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Zogbé pays homage to her two lands in an earnest dedication to the liberation of her later home, rendered with the sensory spirit of her birthplace.