Ein Karem is an exquisite example of Rubin’s work in the late twenties, a period of splendid creativity when some of his most important canvases were painted. The work depicts Ein Karem, Arabic for the spring of vineyard, a picturesque village located south west of Jerusalem. Jerusalem and its environs fascinated Rubin, who had emigrated to Eretz Israel just a few years earlier in 1922.  In October 1926 Rubin described his reaction to the new landscape, “Here in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Tiberias I feel myself reborn. Only here do I feel that life and nature are mine. The grey clouds of Europe have disappeared. My sufferings and the war too are ended. All is sunshine, clear light and happy, creative work. As the desert revives and blooms under the hands of the pioneers, so do I feel awakening in me all the latent energies…I have pitched my tent on these ancient hills and my desire is to tie together the ends of the thread that history has broken”  (Reuven Rubin, Rubin, My Life My Art, New York, n.d, p.162).

This new found optimism is well embedded in this work. Rubin deftly captures the soft, undulating curves of the Judean hills, the graceful Arabs in their long robes, the olive trees with their silver leaves, and the stone buildings which seem to glow in the sunlight. Rubin’s unique mastery is in capturing the minutiae of detail and the broad panorama from a distant perspective. In a work sharing the same title, painted a year earlier, we see the other end of the long winding road (fig. 1). Both works share the naïve and primitive manner that captures so brilliantly the essence of the biblical landscape. This dynamic landscape, bathed in the strong Mediterranean light, is portrayed with the bright colors and articulate and textured brushwork, which characterizes Rubin’s work during this period, “From the late twenties, his painting shows an added subtlety of color, fuller use of pigment, and livelier brushwork – hence, a greater sense of animation” (Sarah Wilkinson, Reuven Rubin, New York, n.d., p.56).

FIG. 1 Reuven Rubin, Ein Karem, 1926, oi𓄧l on canvas, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem