The Twelve Tribes. Complete set of 12 bold watercolors. Each with Raban’s Industrial Art Studio hand-stamp, few with pencilled notes alongside. Each individually matted. Finished designs for an unknown commission

RABAN ZE’EV

Palestine, 1920’s

Ze’ev Raban (1890-1970), a leading painter, decorative artist, and industrial designer, was above all, the pioneer of the Bezalel-Art style, which portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a manner influenced by the European Jugendstil alongside traditional Oriental styles. Like other European art nouveau artists of the period such as Alphonse Mucha, Raban combined Fine Art with commissioned works. Raban designed the decorative elements of such important Jerusalem buildings as the King David Hotel, the Jerusalem YMCA and the Bikkur-Cholim Hospital and much more. See Tel Aviv Museum Catalogue, Ze’ev Raban: A Hebrew Symbolist (2001)