Sliman Mansour

(Palestine, born 1947)

Woman From Bethlehem

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from the collection of Nancy Lolas, Former Head of Chile's Palestinian Federation
Gifted by the Artist to the above
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited:
Sliman Mansour, Club Palestino Santiago, 1999

A rare and magnificent 1987 depiction of a Woman from Bethlehem by Sliman Mansour from the collection of Nancy Lolas, the first female Head of Chile's Palestinian Federation and a member of the National Palestine Council in Exile

"But at the end, I think our fight is to rehumanise ourselves. There is a kind of dehumanisation of the Palestinian people: that these people, the Palestinians, are not fully human beings. The Palestinian woman, for me, symbolizes the homeland, especially as she wears the traditional embroidered Palestinian dress, which I find very beautiful."

- Sliman Mansour


In Woman from Bethlehem, Sliman Mansour presents an intimate and deeply symbolic portrait that captures the spirit of Palestine through the figure of a woman, a recurring motif in his oeuvre. Painted in 1987, this work depicts Mansour's wife, who hails from Bethlehem, embodying both personal affection and collective identity.

The woman is shown seated against a softly curved arch that frames the golden domes and earth-toned architecture of the town, rendered in Mansour's distinct palette of warm ochres, greens, and reds. The background evokes the characteristic landscape of Bethlehem, at once sacred and enduring, serving as a visual metaphor for rootedness and continuity.

Dressed in the richly embroidered traditional Palestinian thob (dress) associated with Bethlehem, she wears a garment notable for its intricate red and black cross-stitch patterns, motifs that historically signified both regional identity and craftsmanship. The embroidery, painstakingly detailed, is a celebration of Palestinian heritage and resilience, functioning here as both personal adornment and cultural testimony.

Mansour, one of the founding figures of contemporary Palestinian art, often used the image of the Palestinian woman as a symbol of steadfastness (sumud). In Woman from Bethlehem, this symbolism is tenderly intertwined with the personal, as the artist's wife becomes a living embodiment of the land's history and endurance. The warm glow of the horizon beyond her, transitioning from gold to green, suggests both hope and continuity, a theme central to Mansour's vision of art as an act of cultural preservation.