Often described as the “Mona Lisa of Hijaz,” the self-portrait, "Al Zaboon" captures Saudi artist Safeya Binzagr aligning herself with a dignified, modern Hijazi woman whose identity is rooted in traditional dress. The title, meaning “the customer” in everyday Arabic, also names the long tailored zabun garment itself, linking the sitter to the intimate worlds of tailors, markets, and women’s domestic gatherings where such clothes were chosen and commissioned. She sits in an ornate chair with her calm, steady gaze meeting ours. Her medium-brown skin is softly modeled, framed by dark hair tucked under a white headscarf that wraps closely around her head and neck. She wears a high white collar fastened with small gold buttons, over which a long yellow zabun that is striped and fitted through the torso and falling in sharp pleats. Her hands rest in her lap and along the carved wooden arm. The chair’s inlaid geometric patterns echo round turquoise-and-rose medallions that repeat across a blue wall, surrounding her in a halo of textile-like motifs. In urban Hijazi costume, the zabun is a structured outer dress with a shaped bodice, long sleeves, and decorative fastenings, worn over layers of under-dresses. By painting its sharp yellow stripes, buttons, and flowing skirt with such care, Binzagr turns this everyday garment into a central subject, preserving details that were already beginning to disappear from city streets. Created just after the artist’s return from art school in London, the work combines European portrait conventions with the visual language of local textiles and architecture, reflecting her broader project of researching, collecting, and painting regional dress. Later shown internationally and now a centerpiece of the Darat Safeya Binzagr museum, the self portrait has become an emblem of Saudi women’s presence in art history as both an intimate likeness of the artist and a lasting record of Hijazi cultural memory, fashion, and women’s social spaces.

"Al Zaboon (الزبون)" by Safeya Binzagr / صفية_بن_زقر (Saudi Arabian) - Oil on canvas / 1969 - Darat Safeya Binzagr (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) #WomenInArt #SafeyaBinzagr #صفية_بن_زقر #Binzagr #DaratSafeyaBinzagr #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #artText #BlueskyArt #ArabArt #SaudiArt #SelfPortrait