Career
Youssef Farroukh's father, Saadallah Howayek, was a Councillor elected into the Ottoman Mutasarref's (Governor) Administrative Council. His grandfather was the village priest and his uncle was the Patriarch Howayek.
He first travelled to Rome and studied the various forms of art. His first passion was for painting. Focusing on the cultural shock observed by a young Syrian mountain dweller in contact with a major European city like Rome.
He later moved to Paris to join Khalil Gibran who had come from the other side of the Atlantic. Gibran and Howayek had known each other from Syria, and became closer friends in Paris being from the same part of the world and the same age. They also had the same passion for painting and sculpture, studying art with Auguste Rodin for two years (1909 and 1910). Ameen Rihani joined them in Paris for a short while. Also in Paris he met Isadora Duncan who bought two paintings from him for 500 French Francs. In Paris, he is known to have socialised at Le Dome Cafe in Montparnasse.
He writes in his memoirs that his favourite book was "Histoire des origines du Christianisme", by Ernest Renan. Youssef Howayek is known to have started translating Dante's The Divine Comedy to Arabic. It is not known if he completed it.
Read more about this topic: Youssef Howayek
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