Son of the Pasha of Marrakech, Hassan El Glaoui is one of the pioneers of modern painting in Morocco. Nurtured from a young age in a world of ancestral traditions, the young Hassan escaped from this predefined life through drawing and painting. He cultivated his taste for the arts in secret, for fear of family judgment, until the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, as well as the American General Goodyear, founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York – both close to the Pasha – discovered his works and encouraged him to pursue this path.
Hassan El Glaoui was then sent to France in the late 1940s and remained there for about fifteen years. There, he attended the classes of Jean Souverbie at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, as well as the studio of the painter Emilie Charmy.
His first solo exhibition took place in 1950 in Paris, followed by one in New York in 1952.
Hassan El Glaoui is famous for this artistic passion for the horse, he tackled a wide range of topics. In the 1980s, he returned to the practice of the portraits, and heard about a circus, which occurred in Muhammad V National Theatre. He waited for the end of the show, to be able to portray a series of the harlequins, and clowns. Throughout his oeuvre, El Glaoui captured instants of his life, tinted of nostalgia, which are also the testimony of the history of modern Morocco, and its rich culture. In the Arab-Islamic history, the horse and its role, had fundamentally been involved in the military field; and the development of the cavalry became a discipline, which needs theoretical, and practical skills in horsemanship, including for instance, the techniques of riding, and veterinary knowledge. Inherited from the 3rd century, this versatile discipline is referred to as the Arabic word, ‘furusiyya’, and has supplied various treaties, scientific, and military[5]. Therefore, the horse was associated to the leaders, who raised it for competitions, or to strengthen diplomatic, and social relationships, by offering it as a gift.
El Glaoui regards his work as a living mirror of the past and the traditions which are still the essence of the Moroccan spirit”. His love for Morocco has been the defining spirit of his painting. He recorded ancestral roots, the flowers in the Valley of the Kasbah and the red Cherifian palaces, the royal corteges with their long lines of white burnouses and the mounted cavalry and their horses.
El Glaoui artwork has been showcased in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including in Paris, New York, London, Brussels, and Marrakech
Hassan El Glaoui passed away in 2018 in Rabat.