Mordechai Levanon (1901-1968) - Oil on Paper Mounted to Canvas, 1948. Signed, dated.
59x49cm.


Lebanon was born under the name of Mordechai Veis in a village near the city of Najvard in Transylvania , the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Oradea, in Romania). He began studying painting while still in Romania with his older brother, who was also a painter. In 1921 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and joined the Histadrut. Studied for a few months at Bezalel. Until 1925 he worked as an agricultural laborer in the Labor Brigade in the Galilee colonies, and later as a construction worker. From 1925 to 1927 he studied at a painting studiowith the painter Yitzhak Frankel (Fernel), and lived in the Mahloll neighborhood in Tel Aviv. After that he left all work and devoted himself to painting. As the son of a rabbi in a town in Transylvania, he knew the Holy Land from the stories of the Bible, and when he arrived in Israel, his spiritual perception of the place merged with the physical landscapes. In 1929, he was part of the Messad group and participated in exhibitions of the artists of Palestine. In 1938, he settled in Jerusalem. 1963 opened a studio in Safed and since then divided his time between it and Jerusalem.
Presented solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Winner of the Dizengoff Prize for 1940 and 1961.
He was married to Rachel nee Goldfinger and had two sons and a daughter. Died in Jerusalem in 1968 after a long illness.