Jerusalem, Looking to Mount Scopus 1925

David Bomberg painted "Jerusalem, Looking to Mount Scopus" using oil paint in an unknown year. The composition unfolds with an orderly sprawl of buildings under a vast sky, creating an almost geometric mosaic of urban form against the natural rise of Mount Scopus in the background. Bomberg structures the scene with an emphasis on architectural planes and volumetric shapes. Light orchestrates the scene, highlighting the textures of rooftops and walls, and casts shadows that define the angularity of the buildings. The palette is restrained, dominated by earth tones, and evokes a sense of timelessness and solidity. Bomberg engages with a tradition of landscape painting but injects a modernist sensibility. He reduces the scene to its essential forms, echoing the cubist deconstruction of space and form, yet retains a palpable sense of place. The artwork invites us to see Jerusalem not just as a historical site, but as a constructed space, mediated by the artist's interpretive vision.