Palestinian Artist Sliman Mansour, Painter of ‘Camel of Hardship’, Dies at 79

Sliman Mansour, a leading figure in contemporary Palestinian art and the creator of the iconic painting Camel of Hardship, has died at the age of 79.

His family announced the death on 24 August through his official social media accounts. No cause was disclosed. “The final chapter has been written,” the family said. “To the world, he leaves behind a life filled with beauty, memory, and a legacy that will continue to live through all those he touched.”

Born in 1947 in Birzeit, near Ramallah, Mansour studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. He developed a realist style focused on the daily lives and rooted experiences of Palestinians. His paintings frequently depicted women in traditional dress, Levantine landscapes and symbols of sumud, or steadfastness.

In 1987, during the First Intifada, he co-founded the New Visions collective with artists including Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat and Nabil Anani. The group rejected Israeli art supplies and turned instead to natural materials from the Palestinian environment—earth, mud and local pigments—as a form of cultural resistance.

Mansour’s work has been exhibited internationally and is widely regarded as having helped shape a visual language for Palestinian identity. Camel of Hardship remains one of the most enduring images associated with the Palestinian experience of displacement and endurance.

Funeral and memorial arrangements are to be announced.