Emek Yezrael - Morning (1939)

10x14 watercolor 

Emek Yezrael, the Jezreel Valley, is the home to some of the most fertile farmland in Israel. It is the agricultural heartland of Israel and rich in natural springs. In Hebrew, the Jazeel Valley is known as the Ha-emek-the Valley. The name comes from the biblical city of Yizre'el, which was used as a wintering place under King Omri's rule and was destroyed in 732 BC. In the 1920s, the land was settled by the first Jewish settlements and was mostly swampland. At the end of the 1920s, there were six Jewish settlements (Kibbutz).

The Jezreel Valley was significant as it was a route from the ocean to the west, to the mountains, and to the east of the Jordan River to Egypt. The way to the sea: Isaiah 9:1.Today, many trucks travel through the valley to the port of Haifa. Jezreel is pronounced Yizra'el in Hebrew.

This watercolor is an unsigned work of art that my father painted at the age of 15, but does have the title 'Emek Yezreel'.