ABDUL QADIR AL RASSAM

Mohamed Darouich al Allousi

Affordable Art

Fine Art giclée Print

Abdul Qadir Al Rassam was born in the Maysan Province, Qal’at Saleh District in 1882.

Qadir’s life straddled two distinct eras in Iraqi history: he was born during Ottoman rule and died in the royal era (1921-1958). He was the first well-known painter in modern Iraq and the leader of realism school in Iraq.

Abdul Qadir was a fine-grained man dressed in a straw hat and then replaced by a Faisaliah and put on white glasses. He lived alone in this house and was served by an old man who ran the house.  He painted scenes of everyday life in Iraq and landscapes, especially of area around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. A collection of his work is in The Pioneers Museum, Baghdad. 

He was the first local artist to offer painting lessons in his studio, and many modern Iraqi painters began their careers by studying with him. He was also the first modern Iraqi artist to paint a mural in a public building – at the entrance to the Cinema Royal in Baghdad.

He was a major figure among the first generation of modern Iraqi artists and was a founding member of the Art Friends Society (AFS, Jami’yat Asdiqa’ al-Fen). He became a landscape painter, and painted many landscapes of Iraq in the realism style, using shading and composition to suggest time periods. A prolific painter of oils, the majority of his works are now in private hands. A small collection of his work is hung in The Pioneers Museum, Baghdad, but many of these works were looted in 2003.

Very little is known about his early life and career. It was only when the researcher and art historian, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra investigated the history of art education in the city of Amarah 1917-1958 that his name was found in the Register of Teachers in the school of Qal’at Saleh for 1916.

This fine art print is available in small, medium and large. Either framed or unframed and is printed on Canson Archival Paper using 12 colour ultrachrome inks. It can be shipped globally.