Mordechai Levanon

The canvas is unlined and in good condition aside from a puncture 6 mm long in the extreme upper edge. The picture surface is in generally good condition. Craquelure throughout as a consequence of heavy paint application. No signs of retouching when viewed under ultra violet light.
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Mordechai Levanon was born in Transylvania and immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1921. After settling in Jerusalem in 1939, the topography of the country, and especially of Jerusalem and Safed and their surrounding hills became dominant motifs of his works.

 

The present work is an example of Levanon's mystical landscapes. As David Giladi indicated " His works have been described as "magic landscapes" of Safed and Jerusalem....these are Levanon's own holy cities. The Land of Israel is on a higher plane that any other land; Jerusalem is higher than the rest of the country; the Temple Mount is higher than Jerusalem. So the artist builds his landscapes – on different planes which owe more to expressive symbolism than to reality.... Those towering cities have a hint of divinity – a solitary misty cloud flouts above" (David Giladi, Levanon, Artist and His Work, Ezavon Mordechai Levanon, Jerusalem, 1970, p.8)