Art and designמרדכי לבנון

Mordechai Levanon

Mordechai Levanon was an Israeli painter known for his landscapes of Jerusalem and Safed.

1901 to 1968Landscapes of Jerusalem and SafedThe Massad artists groupDizengoff Prize for painting

Born: 7 February 1901, Oradea
Died: 20 October 1968, Jerusalem
Occupation: painter

Mordechai Levanon was born in 1901 in Oradea

Levanon was born Mordechai Weiss in 1901 in a village near Oradea in Transylvania, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of a rabbi and knew the Holy Land from Bible stories. He first learned painting from his older brother, who was also a painter.

In 1921 he moved to the Land of Israel, joined the Histadrut and studied briefly at Bezalel. Until 1925 he worked as a farm laborer with the Labor Battalion in the Galilee, and later in construction. From 1925 to 1927 he studied in the studio of Yitzhak Frenkel in Tel Aviv, then gave up other work to paint.

In 1929 he joined the Massad group and took part in exhibitions of local artists. His work drew on the School of Paris and on Van Gogh. He painted real places freely, changing color and perspective, so that the scenes appear to float.

He settled in Jerusalem in 1938, and in 1963 opened a studio in Safed, dividing his time between the 2 cities. He won the Dizengoff Prize in 1940 and 1961 and showed his work in Israel and abroad. He died in Jerusalem in 1968 after a long illness, and was married to Rachel Goldfinger.