Hanna Ben Dov

Hanna Ben Dov was an Israeli painter of abstract and semi-abstract works who lived and worked in Paris.

1919 to 2009Abstract and semi-abstract paintingIsraeli painter working in ParisFree, colorful brushwork

Born: 23 February 1919, Jerusalem
Died: 3 March 2009, Nogent-sur-Marne
Occupation: painter
Education: Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Camberwell College of Arts

Hanna Ben Dov was born in 1919 in Jerusalem

Hanna Ben Dov was born in Jerusalem in 1919. Her father, the photographer Ya'akov Ben Dov, set up the photography department at Bezalel.

From 1935 to 1940 she studied at the New Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem, where she grew close to the painter Mordechai Ardon. In the late 1940s she studied in London with the painter Jankel Adler and at Camberwell College of Arts.

In 1948 she moved to Paris, where she was influenced by the School of Paris and studied with Brancusi, who drew her toward abstraction. Her work is marked by color and free brushstrokes. She took part in the first French Biennale in Menton in 1951.

She first showed in Israel in 1954 at the Chemerinsky Gallery in Tel Aviv, and later held a solo show at the Israel Museum. She stayed in Paris but saw herself as an Israeli artist from Jerusalem. She died in 2009.