Hafidh al-Droubi
Hafidh Al Droubi (1914-1991) was an Iraqi painter and draughtsman, noted for his Cubist paintings and for his approach to professionalising Iraqi art education in the early to mid 20th-century. He was a prolific painter, an important artist in the Pioneer generation, a key figure in the development of modernism in Iraq and a key figure in the development of early Iraqi art education. Life and career Hafidh Al Droubi (also known as Hafez al-Droubi) was born Bab al-Sheikh in Baghdad in 1914. As a young student at the Bab Al-Sheikh Primary School, he was introduced to painting and drawing and learned the techniques of European academic art in terms of proportions, anatomy and perspective. His conservative family disapproved of his passion for painting which they considered the ‘work of the devil’. In the 1920s, his uncle regularly threatened to cut him off if he persisted with art. However, his allowance continued and he used the money to purchase art supplies.- In 1936, he received a scholarship to study in Rome, graduating from the Accademia Reale. Due to the outbreak of war, his studies were interrupted and he returned to Baghdad for a brief period, during which time he opened