Sophie Halaby

Sophie Halaby (; 1906–1997) was a Palestinian watercolorist who depicted Jerusalem and its surrounding landscapes. She was among the first Arab women to study art in Paris. Halaby's younger sister, Anastasia Halaby, established an embroidery workshop to employ impoverished women following the Palestinian Nakba.

Life Halaby was born to a Palestinian-Christian father, Jiryes (George) Nicola Halaby, and a Russian-Russian Orthodox mother, Olga Akimovna Khudobasheva, an elegant but imposing woman.

Beginning in 1917, Halaby was educated at the English Girl's High School of Jerusalem (renamed Jerusalem Girls' College in 1922.) Her talents began to emerge during her time in school in her drawings of flowers. Her family being one of travel and education, the children spoke Russian, Arabic, English, and French. After graduating, she worked for the British Mandate government and participated in Jerusalem's thriving arts and literary scene with friends including George Aleef.

Legacy Following the Arab-Israeli War (Six-Day War) in 1967, Palestinian artists from the West Bank, Gaza, and within the 1948 boundaries of Israel met to rediscover Palestinian culture and norms. In this way, these young artists began to plan resistance through art, and this meeting of young political minds eventual led to the creation of the League of Palestinian Artists or Rabita. In the 1970s and 1980s, these young leaders would focus on the relationship between art and politics and incorporate inclusivity within Palestinians and eventually Palestinian liberation.

Vera Tamari and Sliman Mansour led the movement and would hold exhibitions that led to many arrests, but also led to a revival of Palestinian independence movements through the messages of resistance to the occupation of Palestine by Israel. That being said, she was very adamant that she was an artist first, regardless of political turmoil, refusing to join any of the art movements at the time. Yet, she still inspired those artist's born after the Nakba. She did continue her work in private and would attend conferences to learn about the Holy Land, Jerusalem. She would also assist her sister in the embroidery work for the poor in supplying clothing and blankets for the poor. She allowed two landscapes (which are not documented) and a charcoal-portrait of an elderly man (dated 1930, from Sophie Halaby's days as a student in Paris) to be included. The model was a bearded man with longhair, who was only wearing shorts. His right hand, laying next to his thighs, but had a mixture of clear and fading lines. She may have chosen this image to show that she was widely believed to be the first Arab women to study art in France; but nevertheless, it was an oddity to include the man in a gallery about national-Palestinian symbols. Unfortunately no catalog of the exhibit was ever crafted and is only documented in a review by Al Fajr on November 28, 1986.

Both of the sisters were active in women's rights as well by wearing pants in the 60's and by focusing on charitable gifts by upper-class women (an older form of feminism).

She eventually, with her sister, reclused into old age and died within the age of the first Intifada. She was buried on the Mount of Olives she had painted so many times before next to her parents. Nine months later, her sister Asia Halaby would be buried next to her. Both of their graves were not marked with proper headstones. Much of her work was thrown away by her surviving relatives. Mazen Qupty and George al-Ama, both art collectors, saved some of her work, mostly watercolors.