Hassan El Glaoui

Born in 1923 into a prominent Moroccan family, Hassan El Glaoui was the son of the last Pasha of Marrakech, Thami El Glaoui ‘The Lord of the Atlas’. A gift of a pony from his father at the age of ten instilled a passion for horses in the young Hassan, and he would have witnessed his father on horseback on numerous occasions. In conjunction with horse riding experiences in his formative years, the ‘Tbourida’ or ‘Fantasia’ tradition, popular amongst the Berbers of Morocco, would come to play a major part in his artistic practice – representing them in all their majesty in numerous works. 

The artist credited British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with convincing his powerful father to let him pursue painting as a career, particularly after a 1943 meeting when the Pasha sought and received Churchill's opinion of his son's paintings.