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Lot 54*

Sliman Mansour
(Palestine, born 1947)
The Lost Sea

Amended
21 May 2025, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £57,550 inc. premium

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Sliman Mansour (Palestine, born 1947)

The Lost Sea
oil on canvas
signed "S.Mansour" in Arabic and English and dated "15" (lower right) executed in 2015
85 x 76cm (33 7/16 x 29 15/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Gibraltar

Renowned for his poignant visual storytelling, Sliman Mansour stands as the leading figure in Palestinian art. This evocative work features one of the artist's recurring and most symbolically charged motifs: the orange.

A potent emblem of Palestinian identity, the orange; particularly the storied Jaffa orange, serves in Mansour's practice as a metaphor for homeland, memory, and resilience. Its presence evokes the once-thriving orchards of Jaffa, a city synonymous with prosperity and deeply interwoven with the cultural fabric of pre-1948 Palestine. For displaced generations, the orange becomes a vessel of nostalgia, carrying the scent and shape of a land lost but not forgotten.

Beyond its pastoral associations, the orange in Mansour's hands becomes an act of visual resistance. Rendered with care and gravity, it asserts Palestinian cultural continuity in the face of erasure, echoing themes of endurance and the unyielding connection to the land.

This piece encapsulates the artist's broader vision: a dialogue between the past and present, personal and collective, where even the most humble fruit bears the weight of history.

Saleroom notices

Please note that the dimensions on the physical catalogue are incorrect. The correct dimensions are 85 x 76cm (33 7/16 x 29 15/16in)

Additional information

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