Puerta Del Socco Grande - Tangier - H. Jabran 1917-1993

Dimensions with frame: height: 59.5 cm Length: 82 cm Frame Simple silver wood molding (recent) impeccable condition Material Oil on canvas Signature Bottom left:Hammad Jabran

Born in Ouarzazate in 1917, Hammad Jabran, although self-taught, made a career as a decorative painter in hotels and restaurants in Morocco. Unknown until then, his paintings arrive on the French art market, no doubt following his succession, in March 2015 and are experiencing a success that is gradually growing. Realist painter deeply in love with his country, he knows how to capture the slightest touches of shadows and lights and restore with both force and delicacy, the hubbub and the animation of the medinas of Rabat, Casablanca, Mogador (Essaouira), Fez, Meknes or Tangier.

In the 1860s, the city of Tangier, which was not yet an imperial city, became the capital of Shereefian diplomacy. The foreign legations settled there, more and more giving to the city a whole new cosmopolitan character of Tangier is accentuated. Smuggling is growing exponentially. In 1880, Tangier even obtained a monopoly on the importation of tobacco and opium. European tourism is developing, initially, mainly from Gibraltar, an English stronghold, even if the port is not yet developed and Tangier only has one harbor. Hotels flourished, and the first postcards were published, such as that of the Puerta de Socco Grande, from which Hammad Jabran was inspired. “At the foot of Old Tangier, and in front of the very gates of the fortified wall which encloses its labyrinth of narrow streets, we find the Place du Marché, the Grand Socco”.
With his fascinated pen, Joseph Kessel gives us, in Grand Socco, an image of Tangier that Hammad Jabran's painting renders to our eyes. "Today as in the past, from morning until evening, merchants, buyers and curious people meet in full sun, in full wind, on the Grand Socco, among the rags of a hundred colors and the rumor of a thousand cries" he continues .

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