Private Collection, Beirut. Acquired directly by the present owner from the Family Estate. The authenticity of this work has been cconfirmd by Mrs Kanaan, Beirut. We thank the Family for their assisstance.
Lot 63
Fête Foraine
Painted circa 1980s.
Estimate:
$13,000 - $18,000
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Location
Beirut, Lebanon
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ABOUT Elie Kanaan
Elie Kanaan (1926 – 2009): Pioneering Lebanese PainterKanaan’s Background and Artistic DevelopmentElie Kanaan was a self-taught, successful, award-winning Lebanese painter who was born in Beirut. As a young man, he displayed a distinctive style of painting with oils which he was encouraged to develop by leading artists of the time, including the...
— Read more about Elie Kanaan
About this artwork
A delicately positioned trio of candles or incense sticks is the subject of this painting by the late, well-known Lebanese painter Elie Kanaan.
The choice of subdued, pastel shades by the artist and the smoke that emits from the candles gives the painting an ethereal look, further enhanced by the way in which the three-pronged composition is seemingly suspended in mid-air, amid a multi-faceted cloud of smoke that melds into a light-hued background. The artist opts for deeper colours to depict the holders of both the candles or sticks and containers themselves, adding a base for both his subjects and the broader painting, while drawing the viewer in, before encouraging them to follow the plumes of smoke upwards. The mood is one of contemplation, with Kanaan’s audience perhaps reminded of the times
in life when we turn to candles, whether for support and help or prayer and reflection.
The French poet Alain Bosquet has highlighted what he describes as the “thrilling suspense where everything remains suggested, possible, and unrealized” in Kanaan›s brush stroke, moving from a haziness towards the definite, as is evidenced in this work. Born in Beirut in 1926, Kanaan studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. He also visited Italy before returning to Lebanon. He began exhibiting regularly from the 1950s onwards, both in Lebanon and abroad and won a number of awards. His work featured in several biennales and can today be found in a number of private collections. Kanaan also taught drawing and painting at the Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour, the Lebanese University and the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA). He died in 2009.
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