A line of horsemen, perfectly aligned. A gallop. Then, at the very end of the run, a single thunderclap: every musket fires at the same instant. If the shots are scattered, the troupe has failed. That one second is the heart of tbourida, and it obsessed one of Morocco's greatest painters.
What is tbourida?
Tbourida, also called fantasia, is Morocco's great equestrian tradition. A troupe, the sorba, of around 15 to 25 riders in traditional dress charges in a single line behind a leader placed in the centre. The name comes from baroud, gunpowder. The riders are judged on two things: the perfect alignment of the horses and the unity of the final shot.
Before the charge comes a whole ritual: traditional costume, decorated saddles, often a collective prayer. The horses are usually Barbs or Arab-Barbs, prized for their strength and nerve.
Did you know? In December 2021, UNESCO inscribed tbourida on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The pasha's son who painted in secret
Hassan El Glaoui was born in Marrakech in 1923, the son of Thami El Glaoui, the last Pasha of Marrakech and one of the most powerful men in the country. His father had other plans for him, so the young Hassan painted in secret.
Then came a famous guest: Winston Churchill, a regular visitor to the Pasha, saw the young man's work and encouraged him. The painter later summed it up himself: he became a painter thanks to Churchill.
Paris, then the horses
In the early 1950s he left for Paris, where he trained in drawing with Jean Souverbie and in oil painting with Émilie Charmy. He stayed in France for some fifteen years before returning to Morocco in the mid-1960s. From then on, horses became his signature: he knew their anatomy and movement by heart, and painted fantasias, royal processions and riders until the end of his life.
Glaoui and Churchill, side by side
The bond with Churchill came full circle in 2012, when Glaoui's paintings were shown alongside Churchill's own Moroccan paintings at Leighton House in London.
A legacy that keeps rising
Hassan El Glaoui died in Rabat on 21 June 2018, aged 94. The following year, his Sortie du Roi sold at Sotheby's in London for £137,500, and the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat devoted a major retrospective to him, Le Sel de ma Terre. His father's palace in Marrakech, Dar El Bacha, is now a museum: see our museums to visit in Morocco.
The horse lives on in Moroccan painting
Today, Moroccan painters keep returning to the horse, from expressive gesture to naive art. Two works available now:
- Mohamed Toumi — Horses, mixed media on canvas, 100 × 160 cm.
- Abderrahim Trifis — Horsemen, naive painting, oil on skin.
See more on Mohamed Toumi's page or browse all available artworks.